A spokesman for the Nigerian Presidency has defended the arrest and detention, yesterday of one of the leaders of a protest calling on them to do more to find more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorist group from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Reuters international news agency quoted a source in the presidency as saying that 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.”

Yesterday afternoon, the Northern States Christian and Elders Forum (NOCSEF), an affiliate of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), released the names of abducted 180 girls comprising 165 Christians and 15 Muslims.

Last night in his Presidential Media Chat, Goodluck Jonathan admitted that he did not know where the girls are being kept but vowed to find and rescue them.

•Photo shows demonstrators seeking to compel the Nigerian Government to take serious action to rescue the abducted schoolgirls.