How Pickpockets stole Labaran Maku’s cellphone inside appeal court

A former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, reportedly lost his cell phone to pickpockets inside the Court of Appeal complex in Abuja on Wednesday.

The ex-minister was among the politicians from Nasarawa State who stormed the court in solidarity with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate, David Ombugadu.

Daily Trust reporters gathered that attempts to recover the phone were fruitless as Mr Maku’s aides searched for the missing phone without any luck.

Other people rang the line severally in a bid to trace the phone, but it was not found before Mr Maku left the court.

Meanwhile, the appeal court has reserved judgement in the appeal by Governor Abdullahi Sule against the tribunal judgement that declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, David Ombugadu, the winner of the state governorship election.

The tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, in a split judgment, held that based on the proof from the various polling units before the tribunal, Mr Ombugadu had the majority of valid votes at the election.

But Mr Sule appealed the judgment, asking the appellate court to set the judgment aside.

At the hearing on Wednesday, counsel for the governor, Wole Olanipekun SAN, argued that the tribunal misapplied the law in reaching its decision.

He contended that the tribunal erroneously relied on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine tendered as evidence without any demonstration by the petitioners or the court.

Mr Olanipekun averred that the tribunal did not see evidence of over voting in any of the Independent National Electoral Commission Form EC8AS tendered by the petitioners but went ahead to nullify his client’s election.

However, the PDP candidate’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi, SAN, argued that the tribunal analysed the contents of the BVAS, contrary to the submissions of Mr Olanipekun.