The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued a strong rebuke against President Bola Tinubu’s legal team following their response to the controversy surrounding the appearance of the “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT)” header on the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the Presidential Election Petition Court’s judgment. The PDP regards the legal team’s defense as self-indicting.
Their response is coming 48 hours after the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, chided the legal team.
In a statement issued by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja on Monday, the party noted that the claim by Tinubu’s legal team that it ‘scanned and watermarked’ its copy of the judgment with the inscription, ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team’ is self-indicting and lends credence to widespread public insinuation of pre-determined manipulation by the All Progressives Congress.
The statement read, “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 true 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 the author of a document.
“The PDP demands that the Tinubu legal team should explain how obviously 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 APC should come clean on the issue, especially given its notoriety for manipulations.”
The judgment which affirmed the election of Tinubu as duly elected has since been rejected by the PDP and Atiku, who are now set to file an application for review at the Supreme Court in the days ahead.
