BY By Hamilton Nwosa (Head, The New Diplomat’s Business and Poll Tracking Desk)
The Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, on Thursday granted N10 million bail to a Nigerian journalist, Agba Jalingo, after spending 174 days in detention.
Mr Jalingo, the publisher of Cross River Watch, was arrested on August 22, 2019, over a report alleging that Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, diverted N500 million belonging to the state.
Justice Sule Shuaibu asked that those standing as surety for Jalingo must make a refundable deposit of N700,000 to court registry to perfect the bail.
Mr Jalingo was earlier denied bail twice by another judge, Simon Amobeda, who recently withdrew from the case after a secret recording where he (Amobeda) allegedly made some “biased” remarks against Mr Jalingo, was leaked to the press late last year.
Mr Amobeda is also a judge of the Federal High Court, Calabar.
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Recall that, the Federal and the Cross River government have been under intense pressure from several groups globally to free Mr Jalingo who has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
“We are concerned that Agba Jalingo’s trial falls short of international standards of fairness, especially because the court has allowed witnesses to be masked and the trial to be held in secret.
“The flawed charges and sham trial of Agba Jalingo have exposed the inadequacies and manipulation of the Nigerian criminal justice system and an unacceptable contempt for human rights and the rule of law,” Amnesty International said recently.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), at the weekend sued the federal and Cross River governments at ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja for the alleged “prolonged, arbitrary detention, unfair prosecution and sham trial of journalist Agba Jalingo.”
“The case of Agba Jalingo is just one of many cases of blatant violations of the right to freedom of expression and media freedom in Cross River state and several parts of Nigeria. Joseph Odok was also unlawfully detained and later charged with terrorism solely for expressing critical opinion on social media.”
