President Bola Tinubu legal team has described as 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 is has become necessary to offer this clarification.
TheHintsNews report that the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, had earlier challenged the tribunal to explain to the world ambiguities around why copies of the judgment bears the header of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team.
Atiku, in a statement issued Saturday by his Special Assistant on Communications, Phrank Shaibu, said there was no intention to stir up controversy on the matter, but it was very important that the tribunal 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.
Atiku insisted that the court must explain Tinubu Legal Team is deemed to be accorded special privileges.
Responding, the Coordinator of Tinubu legal team, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), explained that after the delivery of judgment in the three election petitions by the Court of Appeal on September 6, 2023, the Court directed its registry to make physical copies of the same available on September 7, 2023.
He said: “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.”
Ogala added that the certified true copies issued to Tinubu legal team and other parties in the petitions by the registry do not contain the said inscription and any insinuation to the contrary is untrue.
He noted that Counsel to the petitioners would 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 given to others.