The Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Kano has again refused to allow a petitioners’ witness, Muhammad Buhari Sule, from testifying. The refusal followed an objection raised by Dayo Adedeji, Counsel to INEC, which is the 1st respondent in the case, when the witness was called to give his testimony before the court in the case filed by PDP.

Mr. Adedeji argued that the initials used in the witness list before the court did not correlate with the name of the witness as contained in the witness’ statement on oath.

“What we have in the witness list is ‘MD’, and the witness has identified himself as Muhammad Buhari Sule, and there is no way in any form of imagination that MD will mean Muhamad Buhari Sule.

“I, therefore, refer your lordship to the ruling of this honourable court delivered on July 16, 2019, and subsequently urge your lordship to prevent this witness from testifying before this honourable court,” he concluded.

Also objecting, M. M. Duru, Counsel to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the 2nd respondent, said the objective of the provision of the cited paragraph of Election Tribunals Practices Direction (2011) was to conceal the identity of a prospective witness, hence the witness in question, having identified himself, could not enjoy the provision of that law.

Responding, Counsel to PDP, Eyitayo Fatogun, argued that the essence of the provisions of the Election Tribunals Practices Direction (2011) was to protect the safety of the witness. “So this is not a case of non-compliance with that provision as MD was used as his identity,” he argued.

“I, therefore, urge your lordship to discountenance the objection and allow the witness to testify,” he concluded.

In her ruling, the presiding Judge, Justice Halima S. Muhammad, maintained that since the petitioners had consistently used initials that correlated with the names of witnesses, there was no way MD would correlate with Muhammad Buhari Sule, hence the tribunal refused to accept the witness. Eighteen witnesses had so far testified and were cross-examined, while three witnesses were refused in the same fashion. (Daily Trust)