THE Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Gombe State has granted a request for conduct of forensic examination of 2015 governorship electoral materials conducted in the state as requested by counsel to governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji InuwaYahaya.

The tribunal, which earlier set aside the same application during its initial sitting sometime in May this year, granted the application after receiving motion submitted during the tribunal’s pre-hearing session last week by counsel to the petitioner, Mr. Ayoola Ajayi, who insisted on order to conduct the said exercise.

Petition earlier filed to the tribunal by the APC’s governorship candidate and the party itself through the counsel had sought the tribunal to declare the 2015 governorship election, which declared Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner, as invalid based on the reason of alleged electoral malpractices, snatching of ballot boxes and irregularities.

It would be recalled that the petitioners also applied for the court order to conduct forensic examination of all electoral materials and the recount of votes casted during the governorship election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state.

But lead counsel to Governor Dankwambo, Mr. Ibrahim Isiyaka (SAN), and counsel to INEC, Mr. Hassan Liman (SAN), kicked against the motion, arguing that complaints listed in the petition did not affect the entire polling units where votes were cast, and that allowing recount of the entire votes would amount to waste of time, adding that carrying out forensic examination of electoral materials was uncalled for since the petition does not contain complaints on impersonation, forgery or multiple voting.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Matthew Adewara, who read the ruling, declared that the tribunal has resolved to grant the order for forensic examination of the electoral materials, and set aside the application for the recount of votes cast.

He said the adjournment to July 4, 2015 was for the purpose of granting enough time for counsel of both parties to prepare and file their respective reports before the final ruling.

In an interview with journalists shortly after the sitting, both counsel expressed satisfaction over the ruling, saying the tribunal had been fair to both parties.