Chibok Schoolgirls: Jonathan’s Wife Orders Protest Leaders Arrested

Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja

Nigeria Police on Monday allegedly acting on the orders of Mrs. Patience Jonathan, arrested Mrs. Naomi Mutah Nyadar, one of the leaders of #BringBackOurGirls, the ongoing protest aimed at putting pressure on the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue the 234 girls abducted from a school in Chibok, Borno State from their kidnappers.

President Jonathan said in a media chat Sunday that the government has no clue about where the abductors of the girls are keeping them.

Mrs. Nyadar told a news agency that Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan ordered her and another protest leader arrested Monday morning after the wife of the President was shown on television crying last night.

According to Saratu Angus Ndirpaya who was arrested with Mrs Nyadar and later released, the First Lady had at the meeting expressed doubts over the kidnappings of the girls and even accused them of being members of the Boko Haram insurgent group out to embarrass her husband.

Ndirpaya said State Security Service agents drove her and Nyadar to a police station after the all-night meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja, the capital. But Police later released her but that Nyadar remains in detention.

Ndirpaya said Mrs Jonathan accused them of fabricating the story of the abductions so as to discredit her husbands’ administration. According to her, other women at the meeting agreed with the First lady when she made the accusation.

Mrs. Nyadar who is from the same community where the girls were kidnapped from and has been part of the daily protests was also accused but Mrs. Jonathan of deceiving the public by claiming that one of the abducted girls is her child.

But Ndipayar said though Nyadar and herself do not have children among those abducted, they are supporting the mothers of the girls who were abducted.

But it is also believed that her arrest may be part of efforts of government to clear the #BringBackOurGirls protesters out of the Unity Fountain which is less than 200 metres away from the Transcorp Hilton Hotels venue of the planned World Economic Forum, WEF.

The Federal Government had started a massive deployment of security for WEF which will take off on Wednesday.

P.M.NEWS gathered that activists, led by Dr. Obiageli Ezekweshili, who has been coordinating the #BringBackOurGirls protests in Abuja, have stormed the Asokoro Police Station to secure the release of Mrs. Nyadar.

They are however making little headway as at the time of writing this story as the Divisional Police Officer of the station seem not to be co-operating with them.