The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have closed their case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

After a series of proceedings which lasted over two months at the Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the petitioners closed their case on Friday.

They called a total of 62 witnesses to testify, in addition to the tendering of documents to prove its case before the Tribunal.

The opposition and its candidate are challenging the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23 poll.

At Friday’s proceeding, the petitioners called their star witness and former Minister for Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka.

Mr. Chidoka stood in the witness box as the PDP National Collation Officer and Head of Situation Room for the February Presidential Election.

He claimed that card reader accreditation was deliberately avoided across the country to give room for over-voting.

Meanwhile, the petitioners tendered documents from Zamfara State to support their petition before the Tribunal.

The documents presented were forms EC8A, EC8B, and EC8C and were all admitted as exhibits.

Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Yunus Usman, did not object to the admissibility of the documents.

But counsels to President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress objected to the admissibility of the said documents by the Tribunal.

The petitioners also tendered other documents which included a summary of collation of results at the state level, summary of registered voters where elections failed to hold or were cancelled, and summary of collation of results at the national level.

Others were a report of card reader accreditation for the 2019 presidential election, report of the card reader accreditation, report of all PVCs used for the election, and INEC 2019 declaration of results as published on its Web site.

Lawyers to all the respondents objected to the admissibility of the documents, but the Tribunal while noting their objections admitted all the documents as exhibits.

After the PDP closed its case, the Tribunal adjourned proceedings until July 29 for the commencement of defence. (Channels TV)

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