The legal team of President Bola Tinubu has reacted to the controversy generated by the “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’” water-mark on copies of the consolidated judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) which circulated on social media on Friday.
Coordinator of TPLT, Babatunde Ogala SAN addressed the controversy in a Saturday statement.
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s PEPT judgement affirming President Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 election, copies of the consolidated judgement of the tribunal with the controversial water-mark circulated on social media, sparking reactions from supporters of leading opposition parties.
In his statement, Ogala described the insinuations as “mischievous”.
Explaining how the water-mark came about, the senior lawyer said, “After the delivery of judgment in the 3 (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 said 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.
“On collecting our own copy, we immediately scanned and water-marked with the inscription – “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’” before circulating the scanned soft copies to the lawyers in our team.
“The certified true copies issued to us and other parties in the petitions by the registry do not contain the said inscription and any insinuation to the contrary is untrue.
“Counsel to the petitioners will also appreciate the fact that the insinuations being circulated in some quarters are untrue, unkind, unfair, and unfortunate, as they have the same certified copies of the judgment as we have.”
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