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Arrests of Nigerian Protesters Reported After Meeting About Kidnapped Girls Boko Haram Claims Responsibility in Video for Kidnapping Nigerian Girls
(about 2 hours later)
DAKAR, Senegal — Two women protesting the Nigerian government’s response to the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by the Islamist group Boko Haram were arrested on Monday after a meeting with the wife of the president, leaders of the protest movement said, fueling growing concern in Nigeria over the fate of the girls. DAKAR, Senegal — In a video message apparently made by the leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls nearly three weeks ago, called the girls slaves and threatened to “sell them in the market, by Allah.”
The arrests were reported as the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, threatening in a video message obtained by Agence France-Presse to sell the girls, all of whom are in his custody, he said. “Western education should end,” Mr. Shekau said in the 57-minute video, speaking in Hausa and Arabic. “Girls, you should go and get married.” The Islamist leader also warned that he would “give their hands in marriage because they are our slaves. We would marry them out at the age of nine. We would marry them out at the age of 12,” he said.
“Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married,” he said in the 57-minute video, according to A.F.P. “I will sell them in the market, by Allah.” The message was received by news agencies in Nigeria on Monday and is similar to previous videos purportedly from Boko Haram. It is the first time the group has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, which have gripped Nigeria, ignited a rare anti-government protest movement and embarrassed the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, who has so far been unable to rescue any of the teenage girls. They were abducted from their school in a remote corner of northeastern Nigeria on April 14. By some counts 276 remain missing.
Mr. Shekau, speaking in Hausa, one of Africa’s most commonly spoken languages, and Arabic, said the girls “are our slaves.” He did not give any condition for their release. The incident is the latest assault by Boko Haram, which has committed dozens of massacres of civilians in its five-year insurgency in Nigeria’s north with the aim to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the Nigerian government. Earlier this year, for instance, more than 50 teenage boys were slaughtered — some burned alive — at a government school in the north. That incident, like many others, was quickly forgotten in Nigeria and was barely noticed outside of it.
The apparent arrest of the two protest leaders, both from the town where the schoolgirls were seized on April 14, highlighted the Nigerian government’s sensitivity over the kidnappings, particularly as the country prepares to host a major economic summit this week in the capital, Abuja. By early afternoon, one of the women had been released, protest leaders said, but the other — Naomi Mutah Nyadar — remained in police custody. But the kidnappings of the girls have attracted rare international attention, with foreign governments weighing in and the State Department also expressing concern.
More than 200 girls — the exact number is in dispute — are still being held by Boko Haram nearly three weeks after they were seized, and the Nigerian government’s failure to rescue any of them has set off a rare anti-government protest movement in Nigeria. Foreign governments have weighed in as well, with the State Department also expressing concern. The government’s helplessness so far — the army first claimed to have rescued the girls, then retracted the claim — has shaken Mr. Jonathan’s administration, and the president has spoken of reaching out to other governments, including the United States, for help in rescuing the girls — a rare admission of incapacity for a Nigerian leader.
Last week, protesters marched on the country’s National Assembly in Abuja, and it was leaders of those marches who apparently angered Patience Jonathan, the wife of the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan. In a vivid demonstration of how sensitive the issue has become for the government, two women protesting its response to the kidnappings were arrested on Monday after a meeting in Abuja, the capital, with the wife of the president, according to leaders of the protest movement. The country is preparing to host a major economic summit this week, making the unresolved kidnappings all the more embarrassing for officials there.
Last week, protesters marched on the country’s National Assembly in Abuja, and it was leaders of those marches who apparently angered Patience Jonathan, the wife of the president.
Mrs. Jonathan had invited mothers of the abducted girls to come to Abuja from Chibok, the remote northeastern town where the girls were seized, according to Hadiza Bala Usman, the organizer of the protests. But the “timeline was too short,” Ms. Usman said — there are no flights, and Chibok is several days’ journey by road.Mrs. Jonathan had invited mothers of the abducted girls to come to Abuja from Chibok, the remote northeastern town where the girls were seized, according to Hadiza Bala Usman, the organizer of the protests. But the “timeline was too short,” Ms. Usman said — there are no flights, and Chibok is several days’ journey by road.
The Chibok mothers “delegated the responsibility” of meeting with Mrs. Jonathan to neighbors who were already in Abuja; Ms. Nyadar is related to some of the kidnapping victims. But when the president’s wife discovered that Ms. Nyadar and another woman who was later taken into custody were not mothers of the missing girls, she became enraged, said Ms. Usman and Dr. Pogu Bitrus, a Chibok official who knows both women. The mothers from Chibok “delegated the responsibility” of meeting with Mrs. Jonathan to neighbors who were already in Abuja. But when the president’s wife discovered that the women with whom she met were not mothers of the missing girls, she became enraged, said Ms. Usman and Dr. Pogu Bitrus, a Chibok official who knows both women.
Ms. Usman said that Mrs. Jonathan told the women, “You lied to us by saying you are a mother,” according to Ms. Usman. “Because of that we are detaining you.”Ms. Usman said that Mrs. Jonathan told the women, “You lied to us by saying you are a mother,” according to Ms. Usman. “Because of that we are detaining you.”
Mr. Bitrus said that Mrs. Jonathan “ordered that they be arrested for impersonation.”Mr. Bitrus said that Mrs. Jonathan “ordered that they be arrested for impersonation.”
A spokesman for the president, Reuben Abati, could not be reached Monday. A spokesman for Mrs. Jonathan was quoted in media reports as denying that anybody had been arrested.A spokesman for the president, Reuben Abati, could not be reached Monday. A spokesman for Mrs. Jonathan was quoted in media reports as denying that anybody had been arrested.
By midmorning a large crowd had gathered outside the Abuja police station where Ms. Nyadar was being held. “It’s not a rumor, it’s true,” Mr. Bitrus said. “The lady is locked up.” The message from the Boko Haram leader once again highlighted the extent to which secular, Western-style schools are a principal target of the group, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden,” in an amalgam of pidgin English, Hausa, one of the most commonly spoken languages in Africa, and Arabic. Mr. Shekau emphasized that the girls were taken because they were attending such a school.
“Western education is sin, it is forbidden, women must go and marry,” he said in the video message. Mr. Shekau also tried to justify the abduction of the girls by noting that Boko Haram members remain imprisoned in Nigeria.