Button inside a movie clip

Hi i am a newbie but i thought this might be the best place for my question.

I have a flash that i am creating, it is complex and i am not very good.

i have scene 1 with preloader
frame to entire site - which has pages layer, button layer menu layer, background layer, logo and header layer. all have one frame

in the pages frame movie clip opens to pages - layers are content, actions, background

now on the pages frames say frame 40 i have some buttons i am trying to get work. i have tried event listeners but get error - undefined property and have tried this too:

citeMc.contact.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickSection);
function clickSection(evtobj:MouseEvent) {
//tracing the event
trace("The "+evtobj.target.name+ “button has been Clicked”);
//go to the selection clicked on…
gotoAndStop(evtobj.target.name);
}

i get this error now:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at wax8b_fla::allPages_12/frame1()

maybe i am structuring it wrong and maybe i need to put actions in other places.

can anyone help me.