Tinubu’s Legal Team Clarifies “TPLT” inscription On Copies Of PEPC Judgement

By Adesina Soyooye

The Coordinator of the Legal  Team of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, has clarified the inscription, “TPLT” – Tinubu Presidential Legal Team- on each page of the copies of the Consolidated Judgement of the Court of Appeal.

The copies which have made the rounds in, especially, WhatsApp Platform, have raised controversy, with not a few people insisting it is “unassailable proof that the Judgement delivered by the Judges was written by the Tinubu Legal Team.”

But in a statement issued on on Saturday, Ogala dismissed it as “innocuous watermark”, and the allegations as being further from the truth.

Hereunder, his explanation on behalf of the Team.

“Following some mischievous insinuations being made in certain quarters regarding the innocuous water-mark 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 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.”