PEPT Verdict Watermark: Tinubu’s Legal Team’s Comment Self-Indicting – PDP

• PDP criticizes President Tinubu’s legal team for admitting to “scanning and watermarking” election judgment, suggesting manipulation by APC
• PDP demands further clarification on the watermark process, including timing and device used for independent analysis

The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s legal team’s “admission” that it “scanned and watermarked” its copy of the judgment with the inscription, “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT)” is self-incriminating and lends credence to widespread public insinuation of pre-determined manipulation by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to a statement issued yesterday by the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, the conclusion was reached after “meticulously examining the scandalous inscription” of the TPLT’s Header on the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judgement in circulation.

According to the party, the TPLT’s rush to admit that it imprinted the judgment on the CTC “smacks of a desperate attempt to dispel public scrutiny and ward off the possibility of further revelations regarding the issue.”

According to the statement, the PDP and the majority of Nigerians are not satisfied with Tinubu’s legal team’s claims, particularly because “further examination and expert analysis shows that the documents are not scanned and that the TPLT inscriptions are not watermarks but computer default headers, which usually originate from a document’s author.”

The PDP demands that the Tinubu Legal Team should explain how, what obviously is a default header on its computer system should be accepted as a watermark.

The Tinubu’s 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 on 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.