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.
Agba Jalingo, a journalist and activist from Nigeria, alerted the public on Friday that police officers had surrounded his home in the state.
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, SaharaReporters had reported that a Federal High Court sitting in Calabar discharged Nigerian journalist and activist, Agba 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 had 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 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.
Jalingo was arrested on August 22, 2019, over an article published in July of that year wherein he demanded the whereabouts of the N500 million approved and released for the floating of the Cross River State Microfinance Bank by the state government.
After 34 days in police custody, he was arraigned for alleged acts of terrorism, cultism, treasonable felony and attempts to overthrow the state government. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded at the Afokang prisons.
Denied bail twice by Justice Simon Amobeda who was presiding over Court 2 of the division, he was eventually admitted to bail by Justice Sule Shuaibu who presided over Court 1 after Justice Amobeda recused himself following the leak of an audiotape which suggested he had compromised.
The charges preferred against him were amended several times during the trial and he took four pleas within the duration of the trial twice under Justice Amobeda, once under Justice Shuiabu and once under Justice Ojukwu.
The case has received widespread criticism with Amnesty International declaring Jalingo alongside SaharaReporters founder, Sowore and Olawale Bakare as prisoners of conscience while the #OneFreePress coalition named him among the 10 most urgent cases of threats to press freedom in the world in 2019.
The ECOWAS Court awarded N30 million against the Nigerian government for the inhuman treatment meted on him by the police earlier this year.