Police deny arresting leader of abducted parents’ representative

The police on Monday denied the arrest of Naomi Nyadar, the leader of women who protested against the abduction of 234 school girls in Abuja last week.
A statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, in Abuja, said that Nyadar was only invited for questioning, after which she was allowed to go.
The statement said the invitation was part of measures to elicit information that could assist security agencies in rescuing the abducted girls.
Mba said in the statement: “It was purely an interactive and fact finding interview, Mrs Nyadar cooperated with the police in the course of the interview and was immediately allowed to return home to her family.
“She was never arrested nor detained as being wrongly speculated in some quarters.”
The girls were believed to have been abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on April 14 in Chibok, Borno.
However, the #BringBackOurGirls Movement said Mutah was arrested.
It demanded her release.
A statement on Monday by the group reads: “We were notified at 6am by Mr Tsambido Hosea, the Leader of the Chibok Community resident in Abuja, that Mrs Naomi Mutah had been detained at the Asokoro Police Station at the instance of the First Lady following a meeting she had attended in the Presidential Villa with the president’s wife. According to the Leader of the Chibok Community in Abuja, Mrs. Naomi Mutah and Mrs Saratu were delegated to represent women from the Chibok Women Development Association in Maiduguri who were invited for the meeting but couldn’t make it due to the short notice. The records at the Police Station showed that she had been booked in at 3:20am. She had attended the meeting on delegated authority of the Chibok-based mothers of the abducted girls alongside Mrs Saratu Angus. Mrs Saratu Angus who accompanied Mrs Naomi Mutah to the meeting, and was also taken to the Asokoro Police Station, was released at 3.30am.
“We arrived the Asokoro Police Station at 8am with our legal representative, Femi Adedeji from Femi Falana’s Chamber. We, alongside her husband and members of the Chibok Committee resident in Abuja, requested to commence the process for her bail. Our lawyer was informed that neither the Divisional Police Officer, Crime Prevention Officer nor Ivestigating Police Officer was available to attend to us. Subsequently, we identified the DPO who responded that he had more pressing issues to handle.
“To the utter dismay of her husband, the Chibok community member and some of our members, some officials arrived at 11am, 8 hours after her detention claiming to be from the Presidency and took her away with the DPO to the office of the Inspector General of Police. They prevented anyone to accompany her.
“We here by call on the Federal Government to immediately cause the release by the Nigerian Police of Mrs Naomi Mutah.”