The camps of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar; and that of President Bola Tinubu, on Saturday, clashed over the watermark on the copy of the judgment of the Presidential Elections Petition Court which went viral on Friday.
The viral copy of the Certified True Copy of the court’s judgment had the watermark of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team on it, with commentators, especially social media users, suggesting a sinister motive.
The PEPC had on Wednesday delivered a 12-hour judgment on the appeals arising from the presidential election, upholding the election of the President who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Atiku and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had rejected the court’s judgment, vowing to approach the Supreme Court.
On Saturday, Atiku’s camp joined those who faulted the appearance of the watermark of the President’s legal team on the viral CTC.
In a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Public Communications to the former Vice President, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the camp urged the PEPC to explain the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the watermark on the viral copy.
The statement read in part, “After causing a needless delay in availing the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his legal team Certified True Copy of its judgment, the PEPC must explain to Nigerians and the world ambiguities around why copies of the judgment bear the header of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team.
“It is not our intention to stir up controversy on the matter, but the PEPC needs to tell Nigerians why it chose to affix the header of the respondents on the CTC copy of their judgment, whereas the copies that went to the petitioners did not have the same.
“Was that because the Tinubu legal team is deemed to be accorded special privileges? The court must explain!
“It is very clear that many questions are begging for answers, including why the PEPC decided to avail the respondents, especially the Tinubu legal team to have a first receipt of the CTC of the judgment before the plaintiffs.”
Shaibu said Nigerians would want to know why the PEPC conferred special privileges on the Tinubu legal team by making them have first custody of copies of the judgment, even though it was more urgent for the petitioners who needed the document to cause an appeal to the Supreme Court within 14 days.
He added, “Unfolding developments after the court’s ruling elicit suspicions about whether or not the Tinubu Legal Team provided clerical services to the PEPC.
Otherwise, how and when did the ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team’ creep into a document that was supposed to be the official document of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria?“
‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team’ on the top left-hand corner of all the 798 pages is neither a monochrome nor a metadata. It is a header, meaning that except for a valid explanation, the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team is the originator of the document.
“The PEPC must, on its honour, clarify why the court chose to put the header of the Tinubu Legal Team on a CTC copy of its judgment document, while the only emblem that should have been on the document is the stamp of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria.”
The Coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, in a statement on Saturday berated the critics for insinuating the watermark was a result of pre-determined manipulations, saying there was nothing untoward to it.
He also said the PDP collected the first copy of the judgment and not the President’s team contrary to Shaibu’s claim.
Meanwhile, Obi has urged his supporters to keep hope alive, adding that the Wednesday judgment should not weigh them down.He made the call in a statement made available to journalists on Saturday.
He encouraged his supporters not to be disappointed by the judgment, adding that the move to reclaim his ‘mandate’ was a marathon and not a sprint.
Meanwhile, Obi’s lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, told Sunday PUNCH on the telephone on Saturday that despite the initial delay in getting the CTC of the judgment, his team was working hard to meet the 14-day deadline to file an appeal at the Supreme Court.
He said, “We lost three days out of the 14 days available to us. We are now working very hard to take care of that situation. We would have loved to have had the CTC of the judgment delivered on September 6 latest the following day and would have commenced work immediately but that did not happen. Now we are battling with time constraints.
Atiku’s legal team has also vowed to meet the 14-day deadline.
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