A member of the NDC legal team, Abraham Amaliba says there was a compelling reason why the petitioner in the ongoing 2020 election petition case filed to call a third witness.

He spoke this morning on Accra-based Starr FM's morning program monitored by Ghanaweb.

"From my legal understanding, it will be difficult to bring in another witness because we've filed our witness statement. With this one, there was a compelling reason why we didn't file his witness statement earlier and we did it yesterday," he said.

The witness in question is Rojo Mettle-Nunoo - a representative of the petitioner in the Electoral Commission's national collation center known as the strong room.

Lawyers for the petitioner belatedly applied to the courts to admit a third witness after their two witnesses had completed cross examination.

The court agreed to the request following which Mettle-Nunoo filed his witness statement on Thursday, February 4; ahead of sitting scheduled for today.

The main issue of contention with respect to his appearance will be around claims that the EC chairperson Jean Mensa had at a point told him and colleague Michael Kpessa-Whyte to leave the strong room and go and confer with the petitioner.

It is not clear whether Mettle-Nunoo will testify in open court because some concerns were raised about the health condition of a possible witness prior to his witness statement being filed.