The Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT) has clarified that they did not author the judgment issued by the Presidential Election Petitions Court on Wednesday upholding President Bola Tinubu’s election.
There have been widespread rumours that certified copies of the judgment by the five-member panel of justices led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, which have the headers with the TPLT on each page were written and handed the justices by the team.
However, the coordinator of the TPTL, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), claimed in a statement on Saturday that the lawyers behind these insinuations’ are aware that they are untrue, unkind, unfair, and unfortunate because they both possess certified copies of the judgment.
“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 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.”
Ada Peter
