THE legal team of Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate for the February 25 presidential election has criticised the appearance of a watermark on the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal’s (PEPT) judgment affirming President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election, hours after its release.
In a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Public Communications to the former Vice President, Phrank Shaibu, on Saturday, September 9, the team urged the PEPT to clear the air on the controversy over the copy of Tinubu’s legal team that has the watermark in the interest of Nigerians.
He alleged that the court delayed providing Abubakar and his legal team with certified true copies of the judgment.
He emphasized the importance of the court explaining the reason for a watermark of Tinubu’s legal team on the CTC copy to Nigerians.
Shaibu alleged that the court placed the respondent’s watermark on the certified true copy of the judgment received by the PDP while the copies provided to its team and others did not have the same.
He also raised concerns over special privileges he alleged the court accorded to the President’s team.
Part of the statement reads, “It is not our intention to stir up controversy on the matter, but it is very important that the PEPC should tell Nigerians why they chose to affix the header of the respondents on the CTC 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 there are many questions begging for answers, including why the PEPC came to the decision to avail the Respondents, especially the Tinubu Legal Team to have a first receipt of the CTC of the judgment before the Plaintiffs.
“The curiosity is more confounding based on the fact that the lead counsel to Atiku and the PDP had pleaded in the open court to have express receipt of the judgment, to which Justice Haruna Tsammani agreed and promised to make the document available the following day, which was Thursday.
He said Nigerians wanted to know why the PEPC conferred “special privileges” on the Tinubu Legal Team by making them have first custody of copies of the PEPC 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 including weekends.
“In the course of delivering its judgement, the PEPC had spoken of the petition it was ruling upon in a vexatious and denigrating language as if it was a crime to bring a case of electoral banditry before the court,” he stated.
He further expressed suspicions about the involvement of the Tinubu legal team in the judgment process and called for clarification from the court.
Responding to the allegation also on Saturday, Tinubu’s legal team denied the allegation that certified copies of the judgement of the PEPC made available to all the parties by the Registry of the court had their imprint on it.
The Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, TPLT, in a statement it made available to newsmen through its coordinator, Babatunde Ogala, described the allegation, which has gained traction on social media, as the handiwork of mischief makers.
Ogala noted that lawyers representing the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, were at the Registry of the court when certified copies of the PEPC judgment were handed to the parties.
According to him, President Tinubu’s legal team watermarked its copy upon receipt of the judgment before circulating it to its members.
He said: “Following some mischievous insinuations being made in certain quarters regarding the innocuous watermark of copies of the consolidated judgment of the Court of Appeal with the inscription -‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’, it has become necessary to offer this clarification.
“After the delivery of judgment in the three election petitions by the Court of Appeal on September 6, 2023, the Court directed its registry to make physical copies of same available on September 7, 2023.
“Accordingly, the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team applied for a certified true copy of the judgment and paid the prescribed fee. Lawyers for PDP were present at the registry at the same time to collect the same judgment. In fact, the representative of the PDP collected the first copy that was made available by the registry.”
He said the Tinubu’s legal team immediately scanned and water-marked its copy with the inscription – “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’” before circulating the scanned soft copies to its team lawyers.
He explained that the certified true copies issued to his team and other parties in the petitions by the registry did not contain the inscription, and any insinuation to the contrary is untrue.
He added that counsel to the petitioners should know that the allegation against Tinubu’s team on the judgment copy is “unkind, unfair, and unfortunate, as they have the same certified copies of the judgment as we have,” the statement read further.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.