Soldiers armed to the teeth have flooded Borno State to enforce the state of emergency declared last night by President Goodluck Jonathan in his bid to end the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East.

No less than 2,000 soldiers have been deployed to the troubled state, fully backed with hardware including and fighter jets.

Those the troops are just becoming visible as they take over the streets, especially in the state capital, Maiduguri, News Express learnt that they were deployed two days ago.

“That was done before the emergency rule was announced to counter any attack that might come from the announcement,” a reliable source close to Nigeria’s seat of power in Abuja told News Express.

The source disclosed that even though troops had also been deployed to Yobe and Adamawa states, both of which are affected by the emergency rule declaration, “more have been sent to Borno due to the almost take-over of the state by Boko Haram.”

In declaring the emergency rule in a nationwide broadcast, President Jonathan had directed Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim, to take full charge of the security situation in the affected states even though their democratically elected governors have been allowed to remain in keeping with constitutional provisions.

The Nigerian leader vowed to hunt down and bring to justice terrorists who have made parts of the country’s north largely ungovernable since 2009.

•Photo: Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim.