Newspaper publisher and right activist, Agba Jalingo, has been arrested by the police in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria’s South-south.
Newsflash Nigeria gathered that the activist was arrested at the police headquarters, Calabar, on Friday where he went to honour an invitation by the Commissioner of Police in the State, Kayode Sikiru, Cross River Watch said in a report.
The newspaper said Mr Sikiru invited Mr Jalingo to the police headquarters to discuss the planned nationwide June 12 protest which the latter is said to be coordinating in the state.
After discussions, Mr Jalingo was reportedly referred to another officer who informed him that the police had received a petition which accused him of being an arms dealer, the newspaper said.
There was a petition against him that he is a member of drug dealers, so we called him to question him,” the police spokesperson in Cross River State.
Mr Jalingo was accompanied to the police headquarters by Jonathan Ugbal, the news editor of Cross River Watch.
The duo were then taken by the Officer in Charge of Intelligence, Cajethan Onwusor to the State Intelligence Bureau office where they were profiled, their photographs taken and biometrics captured.
They were then asked to wait and after over an hour, an unnamed official from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (CIID) came and call the duo to his office, which is the first by the right on the top floor of the SCIID building.
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Upon arrival, he called the Officer in Charge of Human Rights Unit, Simeon Nwaguru and told him “see the two of them here…”
Simeon read a two-page document handed over to him by the unnamed officer and then called Jalingo and handed it over to him.
After glancing through, Jalingo turned, looked at Jonathan and said: “You were right, these people have cooked a petition that I am an arms dealer and the group has no physical address while the person who sent it did not sign and has no phone number.”
Efforts to reach the CP to inquire whether the invitation was for the purpose of the petition have failed so far with police officers saying he had gone for prayers.
