THE Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, yesterday, refused the request of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to bring in additional witnesses to help prove its claim that the April 16, 2011 presidential poll was marred by electoral fraud and irregularities sufficient enough to nullify the victory of President Jonathan.
In a unanimous decision of the five-man panel, it held that the request of CPC, contained in its application, lacks merit or substance and dismissed it accordingly.
In reaching that decision, the court held that CPC's application called for the exercise of the tribunal's discretion, adding that such discretion could only be exercised in favour of the applicant upon its demonstration of sufficient ground why it should be so done.
"This application calls for the exercise of the court's discretion for the extension of pre-hearing time. For the applicant to enjoy the exercise of that discretion, he must show special circumstance why the tribunal should grant such extension of time.
"It is my humble view that neither the application nor the affidavit has demonstrated any special circumstance why this tribunal should exercise its discretion in its favour."
He held that if CPC's counsel had been more diligent, he had enough time before the pre-hearing closed to come with the application, adding that the lapse of counsel cannot be made to approach the court with such an application.
The CPC had applied to the court to allow it call additional witnesses following its inability to access the biometric data used for the conduct of the April 2011 presidential elections.
The party said it wanted to rely on forensic data to prove that the April presidential election was rigged by President Jonathan.
The party also sought the court's permission to amend its list of pleaded documents by accommodating the additional documents.
CPC premised its application to file additional evidence on the ground that INEC did not allow it to access the materials with which it had hoped to substantiate the allegations of fraud it alleged took place during the presidential election.
The Guardian