Female protest leader detained

Nigerian authorities have arrested one of the
leaders of a protest calling on them to do more to
find more than 200 girls abducted by Islamist
rebels, a source in the presidency and another
organiser of the protest have said.

Boko Haram insurgents, who want to create an
Islamic state in Nigeria, stormed a secondary school
in the village of Chibok in the north-east of the
country on 14 April and took the girls away in
lorries.

A source in the presidency said Naomi Mutah
Nyadar had been detained over allegations of
falsely claiming to be the mother of one of the
missing girls.

Nyadar was arrested on Sunday after a meeting she
and other campaigners had held with President
Goodluck Jonathan's wife, Patience, concerning the
girls.

She was taken to Asokoro police station, near the
presidential villa, said fellow protester Lawan
Abana, whose two nieces are among the
abductees.

"Ms Naomi was arrested yesterday evening," he
told Reuters. "We are begging them to save our
daughters.

Instead of taking steps to rescue them
they are jailing us." The presidency source said: "[Nyadar] was arrested
because of impersonation.

She claimed that she
was one of the girls' mothers, so she's just being
questioned by the police."

Abana denied Nyadar had made any such claim. "They are claiming it is a hoax and that her
daughter was not abducted. But when we say
' bring back our daughters' the campaign means it
in the broader sense of 'daughters of Nigeria',"
Abana said.

"They are so clueless." Nigeria's government is becoming increasingly
nervous about security for the World Economic
Forum (WEF) for Africa, an annual gathering of the
rich and powerful to be held in Abuja this week for
the first time.

The girls' abductions have been hugely
embarrassing for the government before the WEF,
which was supposed to focus attention on the
growth potential of Africa's biggest economy but
now threatens to be overshadowed.

In a televised media chat late on Sunday, President
Jonathan pledged that the girls would soon be
found and released, but he admitted he had no
idea where they were.

Boko Haram on Monday claimed responsibility for
the abductions, AFP reported, citing a video it had
obtained.

"I abducted your girls," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in the video,
according to AFP.