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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the claim of President Bola Tinubu’s legal team over the watermark on the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgement is self-indicting.
Recall that a copy of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court’s judgement, which had the watermark, ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT),’ on it went viral over the weekend, with commentators, especially social media users, suggesting a sinister motive.
The PEPC had on Wednesday delivered a 12-hour judgement on the petitions arising from the presidential election, affirming the election of the president, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had rejected the court’s judgement, vowing to appeal at the Supreme Court.
Over the weekend, Atiku’s joined those who faulted the appearance of the watermark of the president’s legal team on the CTC.
Atiku had in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, asked the PEPC to explain the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the watermark on the judgement. He added that Nigerians would want to know why the PEPC conferred special privileges on Tinubu”s legal team by making them have the copies of the judgement when it was more urgent for the petitioners, who needed the document to file an appeal to the Supreme Court within 14 days, to have it.
However, he coordinator of the president’s legal team, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), in a statement berated critics for insinuating the watermark was a result of pre-determined manipulations, saying there was nothing untoward to it.
He said, contrary to Atiku’s claims, the PDP collected the first copy of the judgement, not the president’s team.
Ogala added that the team watermarked their copy of the judgement after collection from the Court of Appeal before circulating the scanned copies to members of their team.
“Lawyers for the PDP were present at the registry at the same time to collect the same judgement.
“The representative of the PDP collected the first copy that was made available by the registry.
“On collecting our copy, we immediately scanned and watermarked it with the inscription – ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team TPLT’ before circulating the scanned soft copies to the lawyers in our team.
“The Certified True Copy issued to us and other parties in the petitions by the registry does not contain the said inscription and any insinuation to the contrary is untrue,” Ogala had said.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said it had meticulously examined the “scandalous inscription of the Header of Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT) on the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgement currently in circulation.”
Ologunagba said the “knee-jerk admission by the Tinubu legal team that it scanned and watermarked its copy of the judgement with the inscription, ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’ is self-indicting and lends credence to widespread public insinuation of pre-determined manipulation by the APC.”
“The rush by the TPLT in admitting that it imprinted on the CTC of the judgement smacks of a desperate attempt to dispel public scrutiny and ward off the possibility of more revelations regarding the issue.
“The PDP and indeed majority of Nigerians are not satisfied with the claims by the Tinubu Legal Team. This is especially as further examination and expert analysis show that the documents are not scanned and that the TPLT inscriptions are not watermarks but computer default header which usually originates from an author of a document.
“The PDP demands that the Tinubu Legal Team should explain how what obviously is a default header on its computer system should be accepted as a watermark.
“The Tinubu Legal Team should also disclose to Nigerians what specific time on Friday, September 8, 2023 they received their CTC; what time specifically was the ‘watermark’ imprinted on the document, the identity of the electronic device with which the ‘watermark’ was made as well as the PDF used in the said watermarking process for independent analysi,” he said.
The main opposition party also asked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to come clean on the issue, especially “given its notoriety for manipulations.”