Tinubu legal team’s explanation on tribunal certified copy not acceptable – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that President Bola Tinubu’s legal team is indicting the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with the watermark claim on the Certified True Copy of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgment.

The Coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), had in a statement on Saturday said that the team watermarked their copy of the judgment after collection from the Court of Appeal before circulating the scanned copies to members of their team.

But the opposition political party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Monday, said that Tinubu Presidential Legal Team’s claim is self-indicting and lends credence to widespread public insinuation of pre-determined manipulation of the judgment by the APC.

The PDP said that the rush by the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team to admit that it imprinted on the CTC of the judgment was an indication of a desperate attempt to dispel public scrutiny and ward off the possibility of more revelations regarding the issue.

The statement said, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 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) judgment currently in circulation.

“The knee-jerk admission by the Tinubu Legal Team that it “scanned and watermarked” its copy of the judgment 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 judgment smacks of a desperate attempt to dispel public scrutiny and ward off the possibility of more revelations regarding the issue.”

“The PDP and indeed the 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 of 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 analysis.

“The PDP demands that the All Progressives Congress (APC) should come clean on the issue, especially given its notoriety for manipulations.”