Agba Jalingo, the publisher of Cross River Watch, who was earlier arrested at his residence in Lagos on Friday, has been released by the police, according to media reports.
Reports say Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, shared a video of Jalingo’s release on his Facebook page Saturday night, saying the FCT police command granted bail to the journalist.
Journalist @agbajalingo_ was arrested in Lagos, flown to Abuja by @PoliceNG for writing a report on the wife of a younger brother to Gov. Ayade involved in Exam malpractice, upon arriving in Abuja they detained him in an unknown location. Pressures got him released last night pic.twitter.com/fggq5JtZrv
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) August 21, 2022
“He’ll be back on Monday. We will never allow impunity to thrive in our country,” Sowore said.
On Saturday, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, demanded Mr Jalingo’s “unconditional release.”
Jalingo was arrested in August 2019 for accusing the Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, of diverting N500 million belonging to the state.
He was charged with terrorism, treasonable felony, and cybercrime and incarcerated for about 179 days, despite global outrage against the action.
In July 2021, the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja ordered the Federal Government to pay the publisher N30 million for his ill-treatment and torture while in detention.
In March 2022, a Federal High Court in Calabar dismissed the terrorism, treasonable felony, and cybercrime charges against him.
