The Tinubu Presidential Legal Team (TPLT) has tried to clarify the controversy over its watermarked copies of the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal (PEPT) judgement.
The watermarked copy has stirred up debate on social media, with some alleging a sinister move.
But in response, TPLT coordinator Babatunde Ogala explained in a statement on Saturday that they watermarked their copy of the judgement after collection from the Court of Appeal before circulating the scanned copies to members of their team.
The statement reads in part: “After the delivery of judgement 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 judgement and paid the prescribed fee.
“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 watermarked it with the inscription “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team ‘TPLT’” before circulating the scanned soft copies to the lawyers in our team.
“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.
“Counsel for 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 judgement as we have.”
Earlier this week, PEPT upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the 2023 general election.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have already headed to the Supreme Court to contest the ruling.