The dust has not settled seven months after Nigeria’s disputed presidential election of February 25 as the controversy takes a fresh plot.
Following the court’s acknowledgment of President Bola Tinubu’s victory on September 6, the certified true copies of the judgment were released to the petitioners: Peter Obi and his party, Labour Party; Atiku Abubakar and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Allied Peoples Movement, and the respondents: the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and President Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress last Friday.
A copy of the judgment with the header “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT)” made its way to social media, went viral and became the topic of a heated debate; fueling rumours that the judges might have accorded President Tinubu and his lawyers special privileges.
Atiku’s team and Obi’s team have both queried the court to clarify the reason for the header, alleging foul play.
“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 copy of their judgment, whereas the copies that went to the petitioners did not have the same,” a statement by Phrank Shaibu, special assistant (communications) to Atiku, read.
The statement added, “The PEPC must, on its honour if indeed it still has any, 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.”
A statement by Obiora Ifoh, Labour Party’s national publicity secretary reads, “We call on the PEPC and APC to come clean on the CTC imprint and disclose whose imprimatur is inscribed on the entire judgement. Nigerians deserve the right to know and are demanding urgent answers.”
It added that “this development must be cleared up quickly to avoid conjectures and the belief that something untoward happened. This cannot be the case of another glitch.”
Reacting to the development, Babatunde Ogala, coordinator of Tinubu’s legal team, explained that the inscription appears only on the copies circulated to President Tinubu’s lawyers as it is absent in the original copy.
“On collecting our own copy, we immediately scanned and watermarked with the inscription – ‘Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT)’ before circulating the scanned soft copies to the lawyers in our team,” Ogala said.
“The Certified True Copy issued to us and other parties in the petitions by the registry does not contain the said inscription and any insinuation to the contrary is untrue.”v
