……. after over five months in custody
The publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Agba Jalingo, has been released from custody after spending about five months in detention.
Jalingo had spent 174 days in detention before a federal high court in Calabar granted him bail of the sum of N10million.
He was, however, freed on Monday after perfecting the bail conditions.
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Jalingo was first arraigned on August 22, 2019 after he published a story on how Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River, allegedly approved and diverted N500 million meant for the state’s microfinance bank.
Following an outcry, Ayade had denied involvement in the trial of Jalingo, but said the federal government was behind the journalist’s case over his involvement in the #RevolutionNow protest led by Omoyele Sowore.
Jalingo was charged with conspiracy, terrorism, treasonable felony and an attempt to topple the state government.
The journalist was denied bail on two occasions by Simon Amobeda, a judge, who was caught in a leaked video saying the journalist’s life was in the court’s hands.
After the recording was made public, Jalingo asked the chief judge of the federal high court to resign his case.
Amobeda later rescued himself from the matter following allegations of a lack of fair trial by the journalist.