Agba Jaligo, the journalist and activist who was released in February 2020 after being detained at the Afokang Prison in Calabar for 179 days following an allegation of treason made against him by the Cross River State Governor, Benedict Ayade, has been rearrested by the Lagos police.
The activist was arrested alongside 18 other protesters who engaged in a #RevolutionNow protest in Ikeja area of the state on Wednesday, August 5. They were arrested, shortly after arriving under-bridge area of Ikeja to protest the deplorable condition of the country, and taken to Area F Police Command in Lagos thereafter.
Jalingo who confirmed his arrest after being approached by newsmen at Area F where he is currently being detained said; “We were protesting the bad governance in the country. We have been talking every day that this country is not going well and that the government needs to do something to correct the level of poverty and reverse the level of penury in the country. I am surprised that anytime we come out to draw attention to these issues, they send the police to come and arrest us. We are harmless and are not carrying arms but only stood with a megaphone to address the public and then somebody started shooting teargas at us. It is a mystery that something like this is still happening in Nigeria. I was arrested at Ikeja-Along. The police chase us on the express for more than three kilometres before they eventually rounded us up and took 19 of us to the Area F Police Station in Ikeja. We are here. They have been asking us to write a statement but we have refused to do so because we don’t know what we have done wrong.”