Pat Stevens/
Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has revealed that detained journalist and rights activist, Agba Jalingo, was being tried over his links to RevolutionNow Movement convener Omoyele Sowore, and not for criticising him (Ayade) as being reported in the media.
Ayade bared his mind while speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja today.
Ayade also claimed it was the Federal Government that filed treason and terrorism charges against the journalist and not the Cross River State government, adding that it was therefore unfair to hold the state government responsible for his continued detention.
He however accused the journalist of attempting to blackmail him because he was unable some of his personal requests.
The governor added that he would have preferred that the journalist should be released but strongly warned against using the “power of the pen and journalism to blackmail, chastise lampoon and destroy others just for personal economic benefit”.
Ayade stated, “The case is between Agba Jalingo and the federal government of Nigeria. Please don’t get it wrong, Agba Jalingo is not just from Cross River State, he is from Obudu where I also come from, so he is my brother
“On his Facebook page, he sent pictures where he was being teargassed at the revolution march in Lagos. His own pictures, posted by himself and when Sowore was being arrested, he went back to his Facebook to post that the revolution has just started, and that they would continue the battle until revolution works. He admitted this in Court.
“In court, it is Federal Government versus Agba Jalingo, and not Cross River State. The same Agba Jalingo who I still send money to in jail. But journalists will not understand that Agba Jalingo is the State Chairman of Sowore’s party. From the time he moved into politics, he became a politician. You are seeing him as a journalist, but he is not. He is the chairman of Sowore’s party in Cross River State, so he is a politician.
“He has a primary calling, which is journalism. Please ask Agba Jalingo, that Cross River Watch, the first person to give him money to set up the office was myself. His official vehicle, it was me. I don’t have to list all of these, he knows that I have funded and supported him, but journalism stops where blackmail becomes part of your strategy.
“When I don’t get a thing right you go to the social media and write something as careless as Governor Ayade has taken N500 million to Russia. You impugned my father’s name, my character, my family name, for just a personal request that I’ve not met, out of many that I have met. Please for once, put yourselves in my shoes. All I simply did was to stay out of the issue.
“He is in court for treason, a state does not have power to try anyone for treason, it’s not me. Like I said, Agba Jalingo is not a journalist, he is the chairman of a political party and so once he started the campaign to overthrow the government of President Buhari, he ceased to be seen as a journalist because he has become the state chairman of a party.
“I am of the opinion that Agba should be released because I think he was just displaying youthfully exuberance. But let him not hide behind journalism to blackmail, chastise, lampoon and destroy another person just for personal economic benefit.”
The journalist was arrested on August 22 and was charged to court on August 30 with disturbance of public peace and treason for his writing and social media posts about the Cross River State governor.
If found guilty, Jalingo could face up to three years in prison for the charge of public disturbance and up to life in prison for treason, according to the Nigerian criminal code.
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