The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, on Monday, May 5, 2014 denied ordering the arrest of Naomi Murlah, a leader of protesting mothers that stormed the National Assembly last week in the #BringBackOurGirls protest.
News circulated the media on Monday accusing the First Lady of ordering for the arrest of Murlah who joined the march for the 300 girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno by the Boko Haram sect.
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A statement from the media assistant at the office of the First Lady, Ayo Adewuyi said Murlah may have been arrested by security agencies for posing as one of the biological mothers of the Chibok girls who attended a women stakeholders meeting with Dame Jonathan at the villa.
The statement reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to media reports that the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, ordered the arrest of a woman who attended the women stakeholders’ meeting discussing ways and best strategies to ensure the release of the abducted children of Government Girls secondary School, Chibok. We wish to state without any iota of equivocation that the First Lady did not order the arrest of any woman or any one for that matter before, during and after the meeting.
“It is instructive to note that the meeting ended after 3am on Monday morning and all those invited to the meeting including a handful of journalists who stayed throughout the lengthy meeting left the Presidential Villa thereafter. The Naomi Murlah mentioned in one of the reports came to the meeting as part of Borno delegation. The women were alarmed when someone who knew her told the meeting that she was impersonating one of the mothers of the allegedly abducted children on the basis for which she attended the meeting.
“The women expressed their disappointment when she confirmed that she is not a biological mother to any of the abducted children. Naomi left the State House with other members of the delegation. If she was arrested as claimed, then enquiries about her arrest should therefore be directed to the security agencies. It is an unfounded rumour which the First Lady knows nothing about.”
