Nigerian activist and journalist, Agba Jalingo, has been reportedly detained at the Alapere Police Station in Lagos State.
According to PUNCH, the wife of the activist, Violet Agba, confirmed this on Friday evening.
She stated that the police planned to transfer the activist to Abuja tomorrow (Saturday) morning.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Jalingo had announced in the afternoon that his Lagos residence was under siege by Nigerian policemen.
The activist claimed that the police had taken his wife and daughter captive on the floor of his home in a series of posts on his Facebook page.
"I don’t know who sent the police but they have held my wife and my daughter hostage downstairs. I don’t feel safe. Those are their faces”, he posted, sharing a picture of some men in mufti at the gate.
In March 2021, SaharaReporters had reported that a Federal High Court sitting in Calabar discharged Jalingo in a criminal suit that alleged he committed acts of terrorism, treasonable felony and cybercrimes.
This followed the decision of the Cross River State Government to withdraw the charges it filed against him.
The state had taken over the prosecution from the Nigerian government in February 2020 when he was admitted to bail after spending 179 days in incarceration.
Jalingo had also narrated how suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, locked him up in a car trunk and drove him from Lagos State to Calabar, the Cross River State capital, recalling his prison ordeal.
The activist made this known on Monday while commenting on the appearance of Kyari in court, accusing security agencies of giving preferential treatment to the cop.
He affirmed that the same men who enjoyed parading their own suspects gleefully in the media, even against the law, were now covering their faces.
Jalingo had said, “Abba Kyari and ACP Ubua were paid by the Cross River Government to arrest me from Lagos, drive me by road in the booth of a Toyota Highlander and hand me over to Calabar. I will never forget and don’t ask me to.”
“I was charged. Every day I appeared in court, I arrived with my hands and handcuffs lifted in the air. Today, these men are in court, the same men who enjoyed parading their own suspects gleefully in the media, even against the law; they are now covering their faces. Covering their faces from what exactly! The same cameras they flaunted in the faces of those they kept and refused to even take to court?” he asked.
