A state of emergency has been declared in three North-Eastern states of Nigeria, namely, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

This was announced a few minutes ago by President Goodluck Jonathan in a nationwide radio and television address on the worsening state of insecurity in parts of the country.

While Borno and to some extent Yobe have in the past few years reeled from the heightening violent campaign of the Boko Haram Islamic insurgents, Adamawa had been less troubled.

There had been speculations that a state of emergency would be declared also in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa but Jonathan spared them and chose to descend on the three aforementioned states.

The Nigerian leader in the short broadcast directed the Chief of Defence Staff to deploy troops to the affected states and take full control of the security situation. He also appealed to politicians in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, as well as Nigeria’s neighbours to cooperate to make the state of emergency a success.

Jonathan, who, however, did not remove the governors of the affected states, spat fire during the broadcast, telling trouble makers: “We will hunt them down. We will track them down. We shall bring them to justice.”

He added: “I am convinced that we’ll win this war on terror.”

•Photo shows President Jonathan.