Few hours before President Goodluck Jonathan declared a State of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, the Senate gave an indication it would approve the plan saying it will back an emergency rule in the troubled northern states.

The Senate’s majority caucus, made of members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, said, after a meeting, they had received no such emergency request from the president as of yet. They hinted however that such will be considered on merit if it came.

The lawmakers said they have agreed that where such a declaration was made, it will not affect the elected structures in the affected states-potentially Borno and Yobe states.

“We haven’t received any request from Mr. President, but one thing is certain; everybody has agreed that a state of emergency as envisaged under our constitution does not contemplate the dissolution of elected structures,” Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, said after the meeting.

He added impliedly; “So we agreed on the import, but we haven’t received any request from the President on a state of emergency. When we receive request, if it does come at all, then we’ll treat it on its merit.”

The decision came a day after the Nigeria Governors Forum advised the president to jettison calls for emergency in the crises-ridden states as violence escalates in the past weeks leaving hundreds dead and displacing many.

Top opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change, had earlier rejected any plan to impose emergency rule, with the ACN asking the president to step down if that remained the administration’s only option.

Mr. Ndoma-Egba said National Assembly leadership remained in consultation with the president on the emerging scale of insecurity, and he believed a “very decisive and clear measure will be in place sooner than later” another allusion to the prospect of an emergency rule.

“They are security matters so I won’t go into any details, but the leadership of the National Assembly has been engaging with the President on the state of insecurity and I believe that very decisive and clear measure will be in place sooner than later,” he said.

He said the meeting also considered the political situation in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states; the first involving Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the state House of Assembly and the state PDP chapter; and the second involving Governor Godswill Akpabio and a senator, Aloysius Etok.

The senate will intervene in the states, and a committee has been named to reconcile the aggrieved sides, he said.

“It was decided that there was need for the Senate PDP caucus to intervene with a view to see how we can return the two states to cordiality and normalcy,” he said. “And to that effect we have set up committees to engage the dramatis personae in the two states, and those committees will get to work immediately.”

He said the aborted attempt by federal lawmakers to be made members of the National Executive Committee of their parties remained on course.

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