Nigeria 1st Lady orders arrest of protest leaders

In this Thursday May. 1, 2014 file photo, Women attend a demonstration calling on government to rescue kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok, in Lagos, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan met through the night with security, school and state officials and issued a new directive that “everything must be done” to free the 276 girls kidnapped by Islamic extremists, one of his advisers said Sunday, May 4, 2014. It was the first time the president met with all stakeholders, including the principal of the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School where the girls and young women were kidnapped in a pre-dawn raid April 15, presidential adviser Reuben Abati told reporters. AP

LAGOS, Nigeria — A leader of a protest march for 276 missing schoolgirls says Nigeria’s First Lady abused them, expressed doubts there was any kidnapping and accused them of belonging to the terrorist network blamed for the abductions. Then she ordered two of them arrested.

Saratu Angus Ndirpaya of Chibok town said State Security Service agents drove her and protest leader Naomi Mutah Nyadar to a police station Monday after an all-night meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja, the capital. She said Nyadar remains in detention. Police could not be reached for comment.

Ndirpaya says First Lady Patience Jonathan accused them of fabricating the abductions to give Nigeria’s government and her husband “a bad name.”

Police say more than 300 were abducted April 15 from Chibok school and 276 remain in captivity.