The Cross River State Government has taken constitutional lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, to the cleaners for linking it with the terrorism charges preferred against Mr. Agba Jalingo by the Nigerian police.
The state government, in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr.Christian Ita, accused Falana of deliberately obfuscating the facts of the matter with the intention of misleading and misinforming the public.
It described as shameful, the fact that Mr. Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, would issue a statement in which he made spurious claims against the state without even siting the charge sheet to intimate himself with the facts of the case.
It said contrary to Falana’s claim, the “Cross River State Government has no hand in the terrorism charges preferred against Agba Jalingo by the police.
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“The state government is made to understand that the police slammed terrorism charge against Mr. Jalingo for his alleged role in the RevolutionNow protest, as an ally of Mr. Omoyele Sowore, who is currently being held by the Department of State Services (DSS).”
The statement explained that the micro-finance bank report which Mr. Jalingo wrote and which Falana referenced, has nothing to do with Jalingo’s arrests and the subsequent slamming of terrorism charges against him.
“It may interest Falana and his co-travelers to note that the bank has since instituted a civil suit against Jalingo for libel. So whatever is going on between the police and Jalingo has nothing to do with the bank or the state government.”
The statement therefore, urged the Senior Advocate of Nigeria to acquaint himself with the facts of the case rather than seeking to use it to hug Newspaper headlines.
“The statement by Falana is a desperate attempt to hug the headlines. Had Mr. Falana not been interested solely in showmanship, he would have carefully studied the charge sheets before commenting.
“If Falana had chosen professionalism above showmanship, he would have discovered after studying the charge sheets that Jalingo is facing terrorism charges for his alleged role in RevolutionNow protest and not being prosecuted by the Cross River state government for criticizing it.
“It is heartbreaking that a lawyer of Falana’s standing has continually brought the profession to disrepute, cheapened it and spurned professional norms in the altar of populism,” the statement said.
The statement advised Mr. Falana to seek to personally represent Jalingo in court rather than staying on the sidelines to make unfounded statements.
