Agba Jalingo granted bail after 175 days

CALABAR, Cross River, Nigeria – At last, Publisher of Crossriverwatch.com, Mr. Agba Jalingo has been granted bail after spending 175 days in prison.

Agba Jalingo, who was arrested August 22, 2019 in Lagos and driven by road to Calabar, Cross River State was today granted bail by Justice Shuaibu of a Federal High Court in Calabar, Cross River State.

Starconnectmedia recalls that request for bail was turned down by Justice Simon Amobeda on October 4th and 30th, 2019 and in the process making the journalist to spend both Christmas and New Year in prison.

The crime Agba Jalingo committed was his article questioning the whereabouts of the N500 million approved and released for the floating of the Cross River Microfinance bank by Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade. He was arraigned on charges of terrorism, treason and attempt to topple the government of Cross River State.

Agba Jalingo pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During the trial today, Agba Jalingo’s counsel, Attah Ochinke moved the motion for bail but was refused by Tanko Ashang, Prosecuting Counsel for the Cross River State Government.

Justice Sule Shuaibu granted him bail in the sum of N10 million with one surety in like sum. The surety must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court with address which must be verified.

The surety is also expected to deposit N700,000 cash with the registrar of the court who will then pay it into an interest yielding account with a commercial bank.

The judge also ruled that Agba Jalingo will require permission of the court to be able to travel out of the country during the duration of the case.