The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has again raised questions regarding the true origin of a watermarked Certified True Copies (CTC) of the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) presented by the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT).
The watermarked copies of the ruling had surfaced soon after the ruling of the PEPC, which upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu in the February general elections.
The Tribunal had dismissed the petitions filed by presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP).
The emergence of the judgment copies had thrown up different insinuations from several individuals and groups, with the TPLT explaining that it watermarked its copies, after receiving them from the tribunal.
But the opposition PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba, said the explanation from the TPLT “was self-indicting and lends credence to widespread public insinuation of pre-determined manipulation by the APC”.
The party insinuated that the TPLT may have had fore-knowledge of the tribunal’s ruling before it was delivered to Nigerians last Wednesday.
The party 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) 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 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 explains 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 devise 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.”