Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Lagos lawyer Inibehe Effiong has sent a powerful message to the police, warning that he will lead his client to the Zone 2 Command on Thursday, 30 April 2026, not as a suspect but as a citizen demanding answers. The case concerns Mrs. Udoka, Mary Queen, a nursing mother who was invited for questioning over a TikTok video in which she read a passage from a nursery school textbook that many, including her, found disturbingly violent.
The controversy began when Mrs. Udoka helped her five‑year‑old son with a school assignment that contained the following story: “Once upon a time, there was an old man who had a very fat dog. The dog and the old man loved each other. One day, the old man kept a big meat near the fireplace and asked the dog to look after it. But the dog slept off and a thief came to steal the meat. This made the old man sad and then think he must punish the dog. The next day, he put an iron in the fire. When it was very hot, he went to where the dog was asleep again and put it inside the nose of the dog. The pain made the dog mad and ran away from home.”
Udoka, who runs a business and has two young children, said she found the passage promoting violence without any moral lesson. “There was no single moral lesson there,” she told SaharaReporters. After receiving an unsatisfactory response from the school, she took to TikTok on 22 March 2026, reading excerpts and asking whether she was overreacting. Her post triggered a wave of reactions, with many Nigerians expressing shock that such material had been approved for children.
What followed was a campaign of intimidation. At first, Udoka received a flood of calls and direct messages demanding she delete the video. One caller claimed to be a “police man from Zone 2”. A lawyer also contacted her, insisting that she remove the content. Udoka complied, deleting the video on 25 March and setting her TikTok account to private. Still, the threats persisted. Some callers told her to “run away from Nigeria” for her own safety. Terrified, she switched off her phone and stayed offline for more than two weeks.
When she finally turned her phone back on in April, she found a police invitation waiting. The letter, sent on 11 April, instructed her to report to the Zone 2 Command in Lagos for an “interview” with the AIG in charge and the Deputy Commissioner of Police. The invitation was issued through a police officer attached to the D19 Section (ZCID). Udoka said she messaged the officer to explain that her nine‑month‑old son was ill and that she was home alone, but she received no response. When she missed the appointment on 13 April, officers reportedly stormed her home, arrested neighbours and individuals believed to be close to her, and used them to pressure her to appear.
The Anti‑Cult Alliance Movement (ACAM) has condemned the police action, which it described as an abuse of power and a violation of fundamental rights. In a statement issued on 28 April, ACAM National Coordinator Akin Okunowo demanded that AIG Moshood Olohundare Jimoh immediately withdraw the “shameful” invitation. “You are not wearing that uniform to hunt mothers. You are not in Zone 2 to enforce silence,” the group declared.
Now, human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong has taken up and Mrs. Udoka’s case. In a post on X, he announced that he would accompany his client to the Zone 2 Police Command on 30 April. “We will be reporting with our Client as law abiding citizens and out of respect for the institution of the @PoliceNG, not because we believe that Mary Queen committed any crime or that there’s a basis for the involvement of the police in this matter,” he wrote.
Effiong also called out the book’s author, Ayengbe Ebhohimen JB, who is believed to have instigated the police action against his client. “Ayengbe Ebhohimen JB, the author of the textbook, who has instigated the police against our client, will have to justify his actions,” Effiong said. He added that he hoped the officers at the zone’s command would be able to explain their involvement and respect his client’s fundamental rights during the interaction.
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