**JUST IN** 20 PDP State Chairmen Endorse Jonathan For 2015.

Kano, Kwara, Sokoto, Niger, and Jigawa owe
allegiance to Atiku group.
**state chairmen absent are those of Imo, Anambra,
Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Borno, Bauchi,
Delta and Edo as they were having their regional
summit sent their support.
President Goodluck Jonathan received a moral boost on
Monday from state chairmen of the troubled Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) who declared their support for
his yet to be announced bid to re-contest for the
Presidency in 2015.
The chairmen who addressed a press conference at the
PDP Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the party in
Abuja before paying a solidarity visit to embattled
National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, said the
administration of President Jonathan has performed
well and, therefore, should be allowed to continue
beyond 2015.
They also declared their support for Tukur as he battles
to wrestle the party from the grip of dissatisfied party
members who broke away from the ruling party
penultimate week.
However, only 20 of the PDP state chairmen were
present at the event.
The adoption of Jonathan came just as Tukur reiterated
his belief that only the PDP that can guarantee the
unity of Nigeria.
The decision to back Jonathan and Tukur, the PDP
state chairmen said, was taken at a meeting in Abuja.
Though chairman of the group of chairmen, Emmanuel
Agbo, said the communique was adopted by all the 36
state chairmen of PDP and the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT), only 20 names were seen on the list of
attendees at the meeting.
All the 20 on the list were also the ones present at the
National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting hall of the
party where the press conference was held.
The state chairmen are those of Zamfara, Kaduna,
Katsina, Oyo, Cross River, Adamawa, Yobe, Ekiti, Benue,
Kogi, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Nasarawa, Ondo, Lagos,
Gombe, Ogun, Osun, FCT and Plateau.
However, factional chairmen of Adamawa and Rivers
represented their states.
Expectedly, the event was boycotted by state chairmen
where the aggrieved Governors battling Jonathan and
Tukur hold sway.
Those states are Kano, Kwara, Sokoto, Niger, and
Jigawa.
However, some other state chairmen whose Governors
are known to be Jonathan’s loyalists were also absent.
Some other state chairmen absent from the event are
those of Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Bayelsa,
Kebbi, Borno, Bauchi, Delta and Edo, as they were
having their regional summit in Asaba sent their
support.
Restating their support for Jonathan, the PDP chairmen
in the communique said: “We wish to implore our
teeming members and supporters to remain steadfast,
as there is no need to panic, because the
transformation programme of the PDP-led
administration will surely take us to 2015 and beyond.”
They also faulted some members of the party for
expressing personal grievances without following due
process, noting; “We appreciate the genuine efforts
being put together by our party elders at dousing
tension within the party, and we urge them not to
relent.”