The camps of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 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.
It was gathered that 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.
Joining those who faulted the appearance of the watermark of the President’s legal team on the viral Certified True Copy of the court’s judgment, in a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Public Communications to the former Vice President, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the camp urged the Presidential Elections Petition Court to explain the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the watermark on the viral copy.
Shaibu said Nigerians would want to know why the Presidential Elections Petition Court 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 fourteen days.
Reacting to the incident, 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 explained that the PDP collected the first copy of the judgment and not the President’s team contrary to Shaibu’s claim, stating 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.
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