Agba Jalingo released from prison

CALABAR, Cross River, Nigeria – Publisher of Crossriverwatch.com, Mr. Agba Jalingo has been released from prison where he has been held in the past 179 days by the  Professor Ben Ayade-led Cross State Government.

Agba Jalingo walked out of prison in Calabar after his lawyers perfected conditions for his bail. Recall that Justice Sule Shuaibu on Thursday 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.

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.

The offence 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. Witnesses to the state government testified under mask for the first time in the history of Nigeria under supervision by the highly compromised Justice Simon Amobeda of Cross River State High Court who was forced to recuse himself from the trial.

Ironically, Amobeda appeared again on resumption of trial before he reluctantly passed on the baton to Justice Sule Shuaibu who granted bail to Agba Jalingo.