Stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the North-West geo-political zone of the country, insisted on Monday that they stood by their resolution to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo, for the 2015 presidency.

The party was reacting to the denial of the Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, distancing the state from the party’s resolution in the expanded stakeholders meeting held at the late Gen. Hassan Katsina House, Kawo, Kaduna State.

The Chairman of the Communiqué Drafting Committee of the stakeholders and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, in a statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna on Monday expressed surprise over the reversal by Lamido, who he said was ably represented by his deputy.

Wali, threatened to show the video clip where the deputy governor stood behind him in support of the resolution reached by the stakeholders only for him to organise a press conference in Dutse to deny being part of the decision.

He explained that the resolution was part of decisions of the party, which started from the state level to the zonal level.

Said Wali in the statement said, “Our attention has been drawn to a publication widely circulated in the media purported to have emanated from the Jigawa State Governor challenging the resolution of our expanded stakeholders meeting wherein he claimed that Jigawa State was not part of the resolution.

“It is against this backdrop that we deemed it necessary to clear the air on this and other sundry issues raised by the Deputy Governor in his press briefing at his office in Dutse.

“Let me firmly and explicitly state that the decision to hold the expanded stakeholders meeting was a culmination of several meetings held among the key stakeholders of the zone and Jigawa State was always represented by the deputy governor in such meetings. It was also agreed at such fora that each state must first hold its stakeholders meeting before the expanded meeting, which we believe was complied with by each state chapter of the party.”

He said the decision of the stakeholders was as a result of the outcome of the state chapters of the party before the expanded stakeholders zonal meeting, which sealed the resolutions to endorse the president and his vice for the 2015 presidential election.

It added that: “The outcome of the meetings by the state chapters gave rise to the North-West zonal meeting. The expanded stakeholders resolved to urge President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for the office of the President come 2015.

“This decision was the position of the majority of the stakeholders present at the meeting, therefore to concretise it, Amb. Aminu Wali was directed to read the Communique and make it public as prepared and submitted by the Party.

“This accounted for the presence of the Governors and Deputy Governors including that of Jigawa State standing behind Amb. Aminu Wali while he was reading the communiqué, to demonstrate their support and endorsement of the outcome of the meeting.”

The minister noted that for the Deputy Governor to return to Jigawa State and hold a press conference dissociating himself and the Jigawa State Governor from the communiqué was an afterthought and rather very unfortunate.