One of the women who took part in a recent protest on the abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, Naomi Murlah, in the early hours of Monday ran into trouble for allegedly gaining access into the Presidential Villa, Abuja disguising as a mother of one of the girls.
Murlah was one of the participants at a women stakeholders’s meeting convened by the wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls.
The meeting which started at 6pm on Sunday ended at about few minutes after 2am on Monday.
Murlah who is a Deputy Director with the National Directorate of Employment in Abuja was said to have been cleared by security agents to attend the meeting after presenting herself as Grace. Grace was on the list of those expected at the meeting.
Blowing the lid off the woman, Mrs. Jonathan told the gathering that Murlah had earlier approached her that she was the mother of one of the girls.
She said, “When they (the protesters) said they have come to lay complaint to the government and the National Assembly, I asked for the leader of the mothers whose children were abducted, this woman was the one that came forward and said that her child was abducted. I believed her and I asked the Women Affairs Minister to follow her to the National Assembly.
“This is the woman who went to the National Assembly with the women in black and she claimed that her child was missing and that she is the leader of parents that their children are missing in Chibok. Senate President believed them, even me believed them.
“God is leading us to the truth. Our coming out is not in vain. She called people like Oby to follow her as they also believed her. Oby is innocent and I don’t blame her because even me as First Lady, I was moved.
“Today, when I sighted her, I said within myself that we will get to the conclusion today because one of those whose child is missing is here. But to my greatest surprise, when we asked her, she said she is a representative. She wrote down her name as Grace. A whole civil servant impersonating, she should be arrested for impersonation.”
Mrs. Jonathan then turned to the Borno State Commissioner of Police who was invited to the meeting and said, “You have to take this woman to the IG and the President.”
Murlah later told the gathering that although she is not a mother to any of the girls, she was asked to represent one of those persons expected to attend the meeting.
“It was in the morning that somebody called me from Borno State, one Mrs. Grace. She said that she was supposed to come (to the meeting) but that since we are here as Chibok representatives, that we should come and represent her here,” she said.
Minister of Women Affairs, Zainab Maina, who was also present at the meeting said Murlah had last week claimed that her daughter was one of those abducted.
The minister said, “I saw this lady and two others on Tuesday. My deputy director came into my office and said you are talking about going to Chibok, mothers of those abducted girls from Chibok are here and they are in Eagles Square.
“When I asked them if they are mothers from Chibok, they said yes. I asked them where is their destination, and they said National Assembly and Villa.
“I said no, you can’t come to Villa, may be National Assembly. I followed them to National Assembly to listen to what they wanted to tell the legislators. I sat to the end until they finished and I then asked them for the leader of the delegation. She came forward and I asked her where are the girls from Chibok, how many of them and if she could give me the names of the girls and she said that they were not from Chibok and that they are based in Abuja.”
“I shouted oh my God, you have killed me. If I know you are from Abuja, I won’t waste my time to come here and talk to you. Later on somebody made enquiries and my Permanent Secretary took her phone number and name and she is a deputy director in NDE. I was really angry with them and walked out from the place.
“What surprise me again is the gut she has to come here just by mere phone call from somebody in Borno State to represent her. This is not a market place, this meeting is a very official meeting aimed at resolving this problem of abduction. It is not for everybody to come, I don’t know who gave you the invitation.”
It was at that point that Mrs. Jonathan concluded that no child was missing.
“So my sisters, you can all see that within them they know what they are doing. With what is happening now, will you believe that any children got missing?” She asked the women who chorused “no.”
“So, we the Nigerian women are saying that no child is missing in Borno State. If any child is missing, let the governor go and look for them. There is nothing we can do again.
“We will now go spiritual. What we women should pray for now is the killings in Borno State to stop. God will reveal them one by one. The blood of the innocent victims will come out and speak,” she concluded.
Following the public outcry that greeted the woman’s arrest however, Mrs. Jonathan, in a statement by her media assistant, Ayo Adewuyi, denied ordering her arrest.
She said since Murlah left the Presidential Villa with other members of Borno State delegation when the meeting ended in the early hours of Monday, enquiries about her arrest should be directed at security agencies.
The statement read, “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 Chibok Girls secondary School.
“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 three o’clock 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 State 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.”
source: nigerianeye
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