The Lumine News

Tag: #Agba Jalingo

  • August 22 Is The _Chapter Two_ Of My Soon-To-Be-Released Book, The Pen In Jail – Agba Jalingo.

    August 22 Is The _Chapter Two_ Of My Soon-To-Be-Released Book, The Pen In Jail – Agba Jalingo.

    By Admin

    Today is August 22, 2020, exactly one year since I was abducted from my home to begin a treason trial I am still standing. I mark the anniversary by bringing you the chapter that recreates the drama that happened on that fateful day.

    **********************
    Bright days are often a rarity during the raining season in Lagos particularly now that we are contending with the unpredictabilities of climate change. So anytime you have one, you want to make the best of it. 22nd August 2019 was one of those bright days that arrived with a lot of energy. Having just returned from one of my frequent journeys, it was very reasonable for me to spend that whole August Day with *Okemena*. But it was not to be. A day that started out with bowls of energy and decibels of excitement, was abruptly punctuated by four plain clothes detectives barging into our house to forcefully take me away.

    A siege had been laid on Okemena’s business outlet since the morning of August 22. Her staff were held hostage by the same plain clothes men. For over 4 hours, they were under guard and panicking. They were not allowed to make calls. The detectives were anticipating the arrival of Okemena or I. When they waited and none of us were forthcoming, they took Seyi, one of the staff, under gun point and threats to bring them home where we were. On arriving at the gate of our house, a familiar face was with them so they gained access easily into the compound, through the staircase up to the last door to our living room. I rushed to the door claded only in underpants.

    Who is at the door, I inquired…

    As I peeped through the pigeonhole, I spotted Seyi sweating and panicking profusely. Still talking to her through the pigeon hole, I asked her what the matter was that she was under so much pressure and panic. She broke down in tears and was shouting, “Oga I don’t know oooo, oga I don’t know oooo.

    ***********************
    Immediately I opened the door to let her in, two men sprinted from under the staircase and pushed their way through, forcing themselves into our living room shouting, “we are policemen, you are under arrest.” I asked them what I was under arrest for and their first answer was that, I will know when I get to their station. They initially said they were from Abuja. They created quite a drama that lasted up to 15 minutes. Two other plain clothes men were outside mounting surveillance for the others who had entered the building.

    ***********************
    I called out loudly to Okemena who was in the bedroom telling her we have policemen in the house. She rushed out and joined me and was in obvious shock and panic. She asked them who they were, where they came from and if they brought a warrant of arrest and they told her they had no business with her. That they came for me. I was only claded in an underpants without a singlet and I requested to go get a pair of clothes to wear from the room but the stern detectives will not let me do any of that. I requested that Okemena brings a pair for me and they obliged. She then brought a pair of my blue native dress which I wore in their presence and they advised that I should “carry money” because I may need it. I asked why they thought so and one then informed me that they were taking me to Calabar. I think that actually slipped out of his mouth but it gave me a hint of what I was in for. Meanwhile, Okemena had gone back into the room to also change her dress because she insisted on following us to wherever they were taking me.

    ***********************
    She took a little while and before she came out, the detectives had already marched me downstairs into a waiting gold color highlander. Several AK47 rifles were under the vehicle seats and a driver was already seated. They were very impatient. They all entered and drove away with me leaving Okemena behind. She came out of the gate shouting and racing after the vehicle on the street. Eventually, they stopped and created a tight space were she squeezed herself in.

    ***********************
    They drove off into the hectic traffic along Lagos Ibadan Expressway veering into Ojota to Maryland into Bank Anthony way and turned into Isaac John and Joel Ogunaike street in Ikeja GRA. They turned again into a close off Joel Ogunaike and drove for less than 50 meters and a policeman opened a big black gate for the vehicle to drive in.

    *************************
    From outside, while driving into the compound, the presence of a handful of armed mobile policemen at the gate and the police colors which adorn the fence of the compound gives you an idea already that it’s a police facility. Inside the compound, as we drove in and came out of the vehicle, I am guarded through a bunch of abandoned vehicles to somewhere in the back and ushered into a make shift office. Okemena kept following and watching every move closely. While we were guarded to the back, I heard one of the policemen yelling at Okemena from behind us that she had taken a picture with her phone and must delete it. Okemena insisted she didn’t take any picture. The angry policeman kept emphasizing that visitors to the facility are usually not allowed to enter with their phones but Okemena’s own only got in because she was allowed to drive in with us in their vehicle and didn’t go through the regular gate checks. He forced Okemena to open her phone after a protracted altercation, and two of them checked through the pictures in her phone to see if she actually snapped and found none. Her phone was seized until late evening when she was leaving the station before it was returned to her.

    **********************
    While sitting in the make shift container office, one of the detectives who told me his name is Shaka, asked his colleague to get me a statement form so I could write a statement. I wondered what I was going to write in the statement when I have not been told why I am under arrest. I was then informed that the office we were was the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team IGP IRT. That there was a complaint about me from the governor of Cross River state. They asked me if I had any issues with my governor, I told them we have been having a very frosty relationship lately and the policeman handed me a paper and pen to write what exactly has been going on between me and the governor as my statement. I did capture the much I could in the statement while the detective was watching me closely. I remember refusing some of the things he wanted me to write but he wasn’t forceful. After writing my statement, he informed me that I will need to wait to see their “oga” in another office who will sign my detention order, after which I will be detained pending my transfer to Calabar very early the following morning.

    *********************
    Okemena had gone outside the premises to contact our staff, lawyers and journalists. She also quickly moved to get some snacks from a fast food outlet around for me to munch and a pair of slippers, toothbrush and paste. All formalities were completed. She escorted me to the gate of the dingy cell along with an armed man. As I approached the cell gate, stripped and bare footed, the crowd in the police facility who had also come because of their relations locked in there, kept staring at us and wondering if I was the same Agba Jalingo they see on TV and what was going on. I hesitated briefly and had a short conversation with Okemena about what initial steps she should take as I was been taken away. I told her I may be away for long and we encouraged ourselves that the anxious moments, like others, will surely pass, I gave her my wedding ring so other inmates in the cell wouldn’t dispossess me of it and collected the slippers and toothbrush, we hugged and she stood there with tears laden eyes, watching as I was marched into the cell that night.

    ********************
    The night of 22 August, was indeed very long. A night when the gods forfeited their iron teeth of chastisement. A night when racing thoughts threatened the carapace of my mind. The policeman that took me into the cell was in all honesty not hostile. As the first gate opened, there is a hall way and two cells by the left, about 40 by 20 feet in size. The first one is designated for females and was very scanty. The second which is for males is congested. There were 82 inmates in the cell and I was the 83rd and the last for the night. The policeman took me to the gate of the second cell and called the cell marshall out.

    Marshall!

    Sir!

    I don bring you alejo o!

    Ok sir!

    But this one na your brother. So make you treat am well. Make nobody touch am o. E no be kidnapper. Na only one night e get for here. Early mor-mor, we dey move am go una town. Na your brother from Calabar o! Ask am if e dey chop dog meat! I think the policeman wanted to be humorous to put a smile on my face as he was pushing me into the dungeon.

    *******************
    He hands me the N500 I also collected from Okemena to settle the cell officials and opens the gate for me to be pushed inside. He locks the gate and turn back leaving me to my fate.

    Good evening ceeell!

    Good evening alejooo!

    I greet all the cell leaders and members!

    You are welcome!

    The Marshall abruptly wakes inmates laying around him ordering them to shift and create a space for me on the mat next to him. I was actually lucky because that is luxury in the cell, I was told. I handed Marshall the N500 begging him that, if I am able to see anyone before our departure for Calabar in the morning, I will be able to give him more money. He was satisfied.

    ********************
    It was a very sober night of intense memory. As usual, I had to tell the cell what brought me. The “cell cup” was scrubbed on the floor to grab everyone’s attention and Marshall informed them that the cell had a new entrant who is passing by and as culture demands, I had to tell them my story of what brought me to the cell. The “cell-cup” secured the rapt attention of cell members. I stood up and was pointed to a corner where I should stand. I introduced myself and briefly told them why I was arrested. I told them I had issues with my governor and I am needed in Calabar. I added that I was still confused until I get to Calabar then the whole picture will be clear to me. It wasn’t a long one and we all returned to our positions. But not long after that, the Marshall who told me he is from Ugep in Yakurr Local Government of Cross River state, tapped me.

    ********************
    Journalist, please I wan tell you wetin carry me come here.

    Ok Marshall.

    I no know how help fit take come but since you be journalist, if you go outside, you fit help. I don dey here over four months.

    Four month?

    So wetin happen Marshall?

    Na kidnapping carry me come here. We do the work for here, I come run comot for town, police trace me go Imo state go catch me come back.

    So why dey never carry you go court?

    Dey say make I pay N800,000 but I don see N400,000 pay. My people still dey find money and I still dey beg them.

    So if you pay that N400,000 balance now, dem go let you go house?

    Yes na!

    Ok Marshall, who be your IPO?

    E dey outside. I go call am for you for morning.

    Better. So that I go fit ask am somethings, then I go know wetin I fit do.

    *********************
    I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. Not even the snacks that Okemena bought for me. I could only drink water through out the night. Other inmates were readily available to eat the snacks. I kept rolling restlessly in the spot I was lucky to be alloted and in the darkness of the cell, I could still see the stacks of human beings cramped into a room that wouldn’t be habitable even for animals. In the midst of my anxiety, my greatest fear for the night befell me. I was pressed and needed to ease myself. That’s one fear I had nursed before being thrown in there. I had prior experience of how a toilet in a congested cell looks like and didn’t want to witness it. But I was so pressed till I couldn’t hold it any longer. I beckoned to Marshall to help me find my way and he was still in a good mood and was nice to me. Before then, I was not just worried about what I will meet in the tight far corner designated as toilet, I was even more worried about how I will cross the stack of human beings who were laying on the ground to get there without incurring some wrath.

    ********************
    Hey you!

    Marshall shouted at his assistant.

    The assistant jumps up.

    Help clear road make journalist go use lavatory.

    Tell am the law for there o.

    I accompanied the person assigned the task and he clears the road for me until I get to the toilet. There is no door. People are sleeping by the entrance almost rolling into the toilet. He instructs me to cross over the people that were sleeping by the entrance and enter. I obeyed the instruction. But on getting into the toilet, I couldn’t even wait for him to finish telling me the lavatory rules before I bolted back into the cell not minding anymore whether I will step on anyone. Whatever I went to do in the toilet also sympathized and cooperated with me and returned to my belly immediately and I had to go back to my position and endure the night. When Marshall asked me why I did not ease myself again, I told him I was no longer pressed. He smiled and told me he knows it’s because I find it difficult to use the toilet. He further informed me that tap water did not flow that day at all. So they were managing the water they had in the bucket for the night. So they allow 10 to 15 people to defecate per time before they flush. I think I was unlucky to arrive the toilet when the 14th person just left and I just couldn’t bear the stench and the sight.

    ***********************
    The morning came longer than expected. I was anxious for it. We had no time piece in the cell but someone had a device we used to check time. About 4:48am, the same policeman who brought me into the cell came for me.

    Agba Jalingoo!

    Yes sir!

    You don bath?

    No sir but I don ready…

    We dey go Calabar now o.

    I know sir.

    You no wan bath?

    I go bath after sir.

    For where you go bath?

    Anywhere…

    You don brush?

    Make I come brush for outside there na before we enter motor.

    Ok. Oya come make I open door for you. Carry your brush and toothpaste. Come take pure water for outside or use that tap for where Muslim dey pray there.

    I quickly picked the small polythene bag that contained my paste and brush and rushed to the cell door. He opened the door for me and we left together. I remembered to tell my cell mates, bye bye but we didn’t have time to conclude our unfinished discussions over the night.

    **********************
    Outside the cell, I took a plastic cup at the Muslim prayer point and collected water from the faucet on the wall and brushed my mouth. I wrapped the brush and paste back in the bag and told the policeman I was ready. He called his colleagues who were milling around and they all got into the vehicle. I was also handcuffed and thrown behind and we departed for Calabar shortly after 5am in the morning of 23rd August, 2019.

    *End!*
    *******************
    The story continues in Chapter 3 and other Chapters of my book, *THE PEN IN JAIL.*

    There is a lot of anticipation for the book, but we all have to wait a little more for the work to finish and come out fantastic and that will be very very soon!

    Watch out!!!

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

     

    Disclaimer: The opinions expressed Here are strictly that of Agba Jalingo and does not represent TheLumineNews.

  • Gakem Is The Symbol Of Nigeria’s Unity, Unfortunately Nigeria Has Not Deemed Necessary To Honor The Memory Of This Historic Town – Jalingo

    Gakem Is The Symbol Of Nigeria’s Unity, Unfortunately Nigeria Has Not Deemed Necessary To Honor The Memory Of This Historic Town – Jalingo

    By Agba Jalingo – Lagos

    On This Day In 1967, Gakem Spoke To The World…

    On this fateful and historic day, 6 July 1967, federal troops under the command of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, crossed over to Gakem which was then part of Biafra land, and fired the first shots at unarmed civilians at “Ushara Hills” and consequently ignited a bloody civil war that lasted for 30months.

    Gakem is a community in Bekwara LGA in northern Cross River state. The demarcation between Gakem and its Benue neighbours, Vandeikya is a line of Melina trees popularly known as the “Lugard Wall”, named after then colonial governor-general, Lord Lugard, during whose reign the trees were planted.

    In his book, The Forgotten Lunch Pad: Old Ogoja Province and the Untold Story of the Nigerian Civil War, Nkrumah Bakong-Obi drew attention to the abandoned relics that dot the epicentre of that war in Gakem Bekwara.

    According to Bankong-Obi, “These relics are potential incoming spinning resources that self-imposed blindness, denial of our past and short-sightedness have prevented us from tapping into. I have challenged Nigerian leaders and indeed others who have managed this country in various spheres to tell the world why Gakem, where the first shot was fired has remained a desolate town. Virtually all parts of the defunct Ogoja province still bear scars of the war that swept through the area. The trenches are filling up, the Elekpa pond which the soldiers appropriated from the natives and other scars of war are still in Gakem, Obudu, Yala, Yakurr and other places in the former province. The implementation of the reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation policy didn’t get to Ogoja where the physical trouble began. No form of rehabilitation – physical or psychological has been extended to the area to help fix the problems that the war created.

    “It is disheartening that over fifty years after the civil war ended, not even a brick has been laid in Gakem to symbolize the recognition of that unfortunate event. It is even more sobering when one thinks that the bacons demarcating northern from southern Nigeria are still interred in Gakem, Ogoja, Obudu and other peripheral areas of the present Cross River State. It is only intelligent to say that Gakem is the symbol of Nigeria’s unity. Unfortunately, Nigeria has not deemed it important to honor the memory of this historic town.”

    Someday, we know that the deed will be done….

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

    #GakemToTheWorld
    #DontEraseHistory
    #OurHistoryOurHeritage

  • Lessons From My Grandmother: If You Have One And You Call Her A Witch Because Of The Blessing Of Old Age, Please Note That Witches Are Treasures – Jalingo

    Lessons From My Grandmother: If You Have One And You Call Her A Witch Because Of The Blessing Of Old Age, Please Note That Witches Are Treasures – Jalingo

     

    By Admin

    Agba Jalingon shares two very heart touching lessons he learnt from his grandmother and wants everyone to reevaluate our thoughts.

    Jalingo took to his official Facebook account @Agba Jalingo to share his lessons, hear him.

    “Lessons From My Grandmother

    “I still have a 119year old grandmother. There is practically no one even 20 years younger than her that is still alive, that she knows. They are all dead.

    “Like all vehicles that have spent so much time on the roads, her human vehicle which has carried her soul about for more than a century is old, frail and rickety. Her muscles have atrophied. Her vision blurred and you sometimes have to talk on top of your voice for her to recognize it is you but she still walks around assisted only by her walking stick.

    “But I still enjoy massaging her muscles. With coconut oil specially prepared at home by my wife, each time I want to receive her blessings and prayers, hear tales, proverbs and learn some lessons, I go to her and massage her weak muscles. Her shoulders. Her feet to her thighs. When she feels really good and relaxed after that, she always has something to tell.

    “In her old but still very sharp voice, she will call out: “My son, how is your wife, she did not come with you?

    ‘No mama! She will come next week.

    Why na?

    Is she pregnant with my grandchildren?

    Grandma you never tire with grandchildren?

    “Nooo, I cant be tired o.

    “Why na?

    “You remember I married for 12 years and I was childless. Everyone was calling me cock cock cock. When my husband buys wrapper for his other wives and I request for mine, he will tell me other women use their wrappers to tie their children on their backs, what does a barren cock like me need a wrapper for? I will cry and enter my hurt.

    “I know that story grandma. You have told me before.

    “Ok. I forgot that I have told you before my son. But see me today. That barren cock has seen her 4th generation. My roots have extended up to the 4th generation and I am still alive while those who called me barren, have all gone. So in life, learn that what is barren today, can still blossom even over generations.

    “Ok grandma.

    “Lesson Two:

    “Grandma will never take money from me again and I asked why she doesn’t want my money again like before.

    “Sit down my son….

    “Ok grandma.

    “See, I don’t need money again. I neither buy nor sell again and at this my age, what do I need any money for? I have never bought anything for many many years now. What I need now, is company and you people are now always in a hurry to leave me when you come. You want to run and see your friends, peers and families and I am always hold up in my small corner here very lonely. So my son, give the money to those who still need it. I don’t need the money. Just tarry with me a little while for that is the best thing I need now and not money.

    “Ok grandma.

    “And it then dawns on me that, if God spare me too, a time is coming when I will not need money again. When all I will desire will just be people being around me and keeping me company and my problem will no longer be money, whether I was ever rich or poor.

    “So if you don’t have a grandma to learn from, you are missing.

    “And if you have one you are calling her a witch because of the blessing of old age, please know that witches are treasures and don’t ask me how….

    “Take your coconut oil now and go to massage her and make her bless you and talk to you in hush tunes.

    “Good morning and God bless you now now”

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

     

  • Councilors Are Not Chairman Boys, They Are Legislators And Representatives Of Their Various Communities – Jalingo

    Councilors Are Not Chairman Boys, They Are Legislators And Representatives Of Their Various Communities – Jalingo

    By Admin

    A Veteran journalist and human rights activist who was declared a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International, has   stated that Councilors are not Chairman boys, but are legislators and representatives of their various communities, who have control of an arm of government at the local level to oversight and checkmate the chairman for effective management of our resources and community.

    Agba disclosed this on his verified Facebook account today 17th June, 2020 in an attempt to intimate councilors who have little or knowledge of the role of a councilor, as a respond to one of his friends who is a serving councilor in one the local government council who sought his (Agba) counsel.

    Find full text of Agba Jalingo’s solicited counsel.

    “Agba, We Be Chairman Boys?

    “Wetin be Councilor work sef?

    “After dem swear us in, our leaders dey tell us say we must be loyal to Chairman if we no wan get problem. E dey sound like threat. Are we supposed to be chairman boys? Wetin be councilors work sef?

    “No mind dem. Na shakara. If una reach ten ba; six of you by simple majority fit remove the chairman sef, if una fit agree. But that is not the first thing to do……

    “For you that is reading this, I don’t know what immediately comes to your mind when you have a discussion like the one above, with one of the newly elected councilors in Cross River state.

    “In case I am already boring you with my hackneyed expletives about Cross River, please kindly understand with me. I have determined decidedly, supposedly, intentionally, to deliberately pay additional attention to how local government funds in our State are judiciously utilized.

    “The NFIU rules and the assumption of office by the newly “elected” chairmen after five years, have both combined to give me a new task of ensuring that we sustain the discussion around how the N3BILLION LG funds that goes to the 18 LGAs in our State monthly is expended.

    “But the goal of making these huge resources work for our rural people will remain illusive if councilors who are lawmakers at that level, do not know their duties. As honest as my councilor friend is, in that our conversation and with all the willingness he has demonstrated to learn, it is also a lesson to the electorates to up their game and resort to leaders who have a clear idea of their duties before take off.

    “Councilors are like Senators and House of Representatives members at the federal level or like members of State Houses of Assembly at the state level. They are the ones saddled with the constitutional role of making by-laws for the administration of LG councils in Nigeria.

    “A by-law is a rule or law established by an organization or community to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, the State House of Assembly in our case, establishes the degree of control that the by-laws exercise.

    “Like federal and state lawmakers, councilors are elected to represent their local communities in the running of their local council and they have very important roles to play.

    “Among others, they are meant to communicate Council policy and decisions to people in their Wards.

    “All councilors are meant to be advocates for their communities and are ‘case workers’ for their individual constituents when advice or support is requested, while also acting as advocates for the best interests of their Wards and also the wider council area.

    “Councilors are also meant to lobby for local concerns and issues that are important to their various Wards.

    “They are meant to be resolving potential conflicts among community organizations.

    “It is part of their role to support communities to develop their own solutions to problems in their area, where appropriate

    “Balancing competing demands for resources when making decisions in the best interests of the whole LGA.

    “These tasks are usually achieved in chambers through a set of organized rules which include:

    “Standing Orders: These are rules to ensure that council and committee meetings are run properly, and decisions are made in an open and accountable way.

    “Contract Standing Orders: The rules for buying goods and services, as decided by the council.

    “Financial Regulations: Rules to make sure the council is honest and open when dealing with public money.

    “After election, you will now be able to contribute to the development and review of the council’s policies through your role in challenging and scrutinizing the work of the council. Councillors are the only locally democratically elected community representatives capable of holding public services to account for their performance within local areas and on behalf of local communities. Having been sworn in, councillors now have a key role to play in scrutinizing and monitoring how well services are delivered by the council and its partners.

    “Be mindful that Councils are not just service providers. They also play a regulatory role in issues such as planning, licensing, trading standards and environmental health.

    “This involves councillors playing quasi-legal roles on special committees. These regulatory committees operate within a specific set of legislation and guidance that will be provided by the councillors.

    “Since no politician can yet get into office in Nigeria without political party affiliation, councilors are as well expected to remain affiliated, disciplined and report back to their parties.

    “They should engage with their local party organization and meet regularly as a political group within the Ward to continually review party policy to be abreast of council policy.

    “In a nutshell, councilors are not Chairman boys. Rather, like federal and state lawmakers, they are legislators and representatives of their various communities who have control of an arm of government at the local level to oversight and checkmate the chairman for the effective management of our resources and our communities.

    “Finally, there is also a need to reassess the quality of people we elect as councillors considering the important roles they play in the administration of our councils and the volume of money that now goes into the councils”.

    Thank you and God bless Cross River

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

    #FollowOurMoney
    #HoldLeadersAccountability

  • The Issue, The Threat, The Emptiness and The Call For Unification In Support of Agba Jalingo.

    The Issue, The Threat, The Emptiness and The Call For Unification In Support of Agba Jalingo.

    By Richard F. Inoyo – Calabar

    “If there must be war, let it happen in my days, that my children may have peace”

    ~ undercover agent ~

    It has been said time without number that, those who live in glass house, shouldn’t throw stone. The recent revelation brought to the consciousness of Nigerians across the country by brilliant investigative Journalist_ Citizen Agba Jalingo over the use of a 80years woman for photo op masterminded by Florence Ita Giwa as seen in a picture where the governor of Cross River State Mr. Ben Ayade claimed to have allocated a furnished house to the said old woman that showed that there was never a time the governor did such a thing as the perpetrators would want us to think has hit national newsrooms across the country.

    With that revelation led by the CrossRiverWatch Team, we have seen an hysteric Florence Ita Giwa running to Bakassi at the dead of the night to do damage control, and at the same time dishing out needless insults and calling worldclass investigative Journalist Agba Jalingo all kinds of unprintable names while attacking the blessed memory of Agba Jalingo’s progenitors.

    And as if that level of erratic utterances and badly mismanaged image-laundering isn’t enough, instead of Ita Giwa to provide and hand the said 80 years old woman all relevant documents and papers of ownership of the furnished house and for us all to move on_ she has gone ahead, abandoning the substance of the issue which basically has to do with ensuring the correction of the evil done against the 80years old woman, who is yet to move into the so called house they claimed they gave to her in their duplicitous plot.

    Seeing that the facts stack against her, in her latest roll of flurry borne out of the fact that her inhumane deeds were exposed by Investigative Journalist Agba Jalingo; Florence Ita Giwa has decided to leave the real issue of providing ownership documents to the 80years old woman, to pursuing the irrelevant issue of making a case about what particular date was pinpointed as the date she flew into calabar with threat of taking legal action against Investigative Journalist Agba Jalingo for telling the whole world that contrary to her claim, she was flown in, a day before the charade and shameless showmanship that outrageously saw an 80years old woman used as Guinea pig in the worst possible deception in modern day history.

    Let it be on her mental slate that, the general public is against her in this situation, and the whole world stands with Citizen Agba Jalingo. Decency and patriotism dictate that, as a people we should have more of brilliant Investigative Journalist like Agba Jalingo across the country who reveals false-dealings of government officials at all levels and speak truth to power, and none of Florence Ita Giwa who have problem seeing people exposing reprehensible duplicity and demanding justice for poor grandmother like the 80years old woman who she used in that ungodly act.

    Without leaving room for ambiguity, let it be abundantly clear that Nigerians need 10million Agba Jalingos across the country to hold government accountable, and zero number of the likes of Florence Ita Giwa for doing very little for the poor people of Bakassi all this time but yet claim to represent and pretending to have done so much during all these long dark years in the history of Bakassi with very little to show for it.

    Florence Ita Giwa needs to come down from her fractured high hill and quickly realise that, we are all fed up with her antics and antecedence which none of us would wish any person to emulate.

    I call on all Cross Riverians in particular, and Nigerians in General, to unite and defend Agba Jalingo for exposing terrors in high places. The last thing we need is a society without Agba Jalingo.

    I can live with a society without Florence Ita Giwa, but definitely not one without dedicated and patriotic journalist like Agba Jalingo.

    Let history vindicate us all as we stand by Agba Jalingo in every court against all empty and frivolous charges brought forth by any person on earth.

    Mma has only one honourable path to take, which is to hand the 80years old woman her Certificate of Ownership and Occupancy, and scrap the crap of litigating over date-schedule which would only over extend the televisionalisation of her deed on social media screens for as long as such shrapnel litigation lasts. All we demand is justice for the 80years old woman, and not egotrip that has been tripped.

    Signed.

    Richard F. Inoyo
    Country Director, Citizens Solution Network.

    For Civilian and Population Council.

     

    NB: This is strictly the opinion of Richard F. Inoyo and does not in anyway represent that of THELUMINENEWS or its staff.

  • #YNaijaMedia100: Agba Jalingo, Four Others Cross Riverians Makes The 2020 Culture Curator List

    #YNaijaMedia100: Agba Jalingo, Four Others Cross Riverians Makes The 2020 Culture Curator List

    By Admin

    Five Cross Riverians made it to the 2020 #Media100 list of culture curators, the publication by YNaija, an online news portal shows.

    They include CrossRiverWatch Publisher, Agba Jalingo; German based journalist, Mercy Abang; Pulse Nigeria Editor-in-Chief, Ben Bassey; Broadcast Journalist, MaryAnn Duke Okon and second-time recipient, Philip Obaji Jr.

    According to YNaija, the list aims “to celebrate those who do the job of leading others on, sometimes without request. We call them the Media 100 -culture curators.”

    “They are the ones who shape cultures, and when you join conversations and become passionate about it, you later realise that someone had set the agenda for you to follow – ‘It is a subconscious something’. We call these people the indispensables because you can’t do away with them like some bread with molds,” the statement read.

    The recipients from Cross River State:

    YOU MAY LIKEMgid

    Absurd: Abuja Wife Hides $1.2 Million From Husband
    Olymp Trade
    Agba Jalingo
    Jalingo whose works have drawn ire from public officials became a household name when he was arrested in August 2019 for for an article published in July of same year which sought the whereabouts of the NGN500 million approved and released by the Cross River state government for the floating of the state owned Microfinance bank.

    He was charged with treasonable felony, terrorism amidst others and spent six months in incarceration before his eventual release on bail in February 2020. He remains on trial. Governor Ben Ayade was fingered as the hand behind his ordeal and he allegedly used his involvement in the #RevolutionNow movement as a cover up.

    MaryAnn Duke-Okon
    Duke, who graduated from the New York Film Academy in 2019 where she majored in Broadcast Journalism, works with News Central TV. She had served as Head of Presentation at Nigeria Info FM and also worked as a presenter on Plus TV after she left the Cross River Broadcasting Corporation.

    Ben Bassey
    Bassey, a graduate of the University of Calabar is currently the Editor–in–Chief, Pulse Nigeria. A certified Digital Marketer, Digital Strategist, Content Marketer, Journalist, and Storyteller, he has helped several brands create campaign strategies that effectively push their brand/product message to their target audience, thereby boosting brand engagement and conversions

    Mercy Abang
    Mercy is an award-winning journalist, who has worked from the United Nations in New York; reported from the Bundestag, the German Parliament; writes and produces for Aljazeera English; has worked with the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS); volunteered with the African Union media, observed elections with the International Republican Institute (IRI) and is a volunteer with the African Union (Digit-trends Team). She is a widely read international journalist who focuses her reports on under-reported communities.

    Philip Obaji Jr
    Philip is currently a contributor to New York–based news and culture website, The Daily Beast, and a blogger for Global Partnership for Education and A World at School.

    His articles have been published in numerous foreign and Nigerian newspapers and websites, including MSN UK, MSN South Africa, Al Jazeera, Yahoo, Foreign Policy Magazine, AllAfrica, Global Citizen, Sahara Reporters, The New Humanitarian, World Politics Review, P.M. News Nigeria, News Deeply, Equal Times, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Sundiata Post.

  • Odinkalu Declines Interview With National Daily Over Journalist, Agba Jalingo’s Incarceration

    Odinkalu Declines Interview With National Daily Over Journalist, Agba Jalingo’s Incarceration

    By Admin

    Human rights activist, and immediate past Chair of the National Human Rights Commission NHRC, Professor Chidi Odinkalu has said he declined an interview with a national daily in Nigeria following the paper’s decision to award a sitting Governor who allegedly orchestrated the arrest and incarceration of journalist, Agba Jalingo.

    Odinkalu, who is currently the senior team manager for the Africa Program of Open Society Justice Initiative, in a brief chat said that people have to be held accountable for their actions as it relates to the Nigerian civic space which reports show is shrinking.

    Nigeria currently ranks 115 out of 180 countries on World Press Freedom Index as compiled by Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans frontières). The last report issued in April 2020 cited the killing, detention and brutalisation of journalists as well as deliberate attempts to shrink the civic space by the Nigerian Government as reasons for the ranking.

    And, Odinkalu, while explaining the reason why he turned down an interview with Daily Independent earlier in the week, said; “We are not stupid people. We have to hold everyone to account.”

    A top level editor of the paper had reached him to comment on the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. But, Odinkalu in his reply said: “I’d wish to respond but I am not sure I can.”

    According to Odinkalu, the daily’s editor “went to Calabar to give an award to Ben Ayade while he was detaining Agba Jalingo. I personally decided I would have nothing to do with Independent for at least 1 year.”

    Who is Agba Jalingo?

    Jalingo is the publisher of CrossRiverWatch, an online newspaper based in Nigeria’s southern port city of Calabar. He was arrested in his Lagos residence on August 22nd 2019, about a month after he published an article wherein he demanded that the Cross River state government comes clean on the whereabouts of the NGN500 million it approved and released for the floating of the Cross River Microfinance bank.

    He was then driven to Calabar by road in a journey that lasted about 26 hours. He arrived on August 24th and was detained at a Police black site for 34 more days before he was arraigned on September 25th before Justice Simon Amobeda of the Calabar division of the Federal High Court. He was remanded at a medium security custodial center in Calabar.

    Justice Amobeda denied admitting him to bail twice and following a leaked tape of him allegedly threatening that Jalingo will be meted the ‘Dele Giwa’ treatment, the defense team wrote the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment of the case; the judge later recused himself.

    Now, Cross River Governor, Benedict Ayade was fingered as the architect of his travails, an allegation the state has continuously denied and accused Time Newspapers of practicing “Gutter Journalism” after it published the November 2019 list of the #OneFreePressCoalition “10 Most Urgent Cases Of Threat To Press Freedom In The World,” wherein Jalingo was listed number 9.

    The award…

    On January 13, 2020, a news story emanating from the office of Mr. Ayade’s spokesman, Christian Ita said the Governor has “bagged the Independent Newspaper Governor of the Year award for 2019.”

    The story quoted the newspaper as saying that; “by his sterling performance so far in office, amidst paucity of funds, Governor Ayade has effectively distinguished himself as one of the most outstanding governors since the advent of the current democratic dispensation since 1999, and also a pathfinder of good governance in Nigeria.”

    As at this time, Jalingo’s fate remained unknown until February 13, 2020 when he was eventually admitted to bail by a different judge, Justice Sule Shuaibu. He will spend four more days before he was eventually released on February 17, 2020; same day, the Managing Director and Editor- In-Chief of Independent Newspaper, Mr. Steve Omanufeme visited Calabar and presented the award letter to Governor Ayade as the Daily Independent Newspaper Governor-of-the-Year.

  • Ayade, The Cry Cry Baby In Peregrino House

    Ayade, The Cry Cry Baby In Peregrino House

    By Agba Jalingo – Lagos

    Yesterday, my governor, Senator Ben Ayade cried AGAIN while launching the anti-taxation agency in Calabar. The agency is meant to ensure low income earners do not pay taxes in Cross River state. His tears actually touched a soft chord in the minds of many people across the country and several of them have circulated the video back to me. One person who is not even in Cross River state said, their earlier scheduled meeting started with the video where governor Ayade was crying and most people in the meeting also started crying along with the governor whom they concluded is a lover of the poor and this is very impressive.

    But if tears were a true measure of our pain, even Hitler’s drops would be preserved in the alabaster bottle. That is the irony and the double edged nature of that readily available liquid. Once emotions are evoked, in no direction essentially, tears can start flowing and oftentimes, the person whose tears flow down the cheeks, doesn’t even know why they flow until composure is regained.

    So tears are not necessarily an expression of concern, rather, tears can fittingly be described as the defecation of pent up emotions which could also be spontaneous. Tears could also be a pontilitous attempt at hood winking the unsuspecting public into collective amnesia, particularly for politicians.

    The later is where I will categorize the incessant tears of our governor, Senator Ben Ayade and I will tell you why.

    Apart from the poorly substantiated tales of his crying for the poor before his coming into politics, yesterday was the fourth time governor Ayade will be crying in public. But guess what, each time he cried, nothing followed!

    Before you get hoodwinked by yesterday’s tears, let me take you down memory lane.

    17 January 2017, Governor Ayade announced the abolition of all forms of taxation for low-income earners in Cross River state. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor and Senior Special Assistant Media, Mr. Christian Ita, in a press statement said those affected by the tax exemption are people earning below N50, 000 monthly, taxi, tricycle, wheel barrows, and motor cycle operators as well as petty traders and hoteliers.

    He said Governor Ben Ayade, who gave the order after signing the 2017 appropriation bill of N707 billion, had reiterated the need to provide some economic reliefs to low income earners in the state with regards to taxes.

    Ayade, after signing the budget had warned that: “I am sounding the last warning that henceforth I don’t want to hear anyone who earns less than N50, 000 a month being taxed in any form in the state….In the same vein, I don’t want to see a hotel that is struggling to survive with challenges of diesels being chased by government officials over taxes. I have warned anybody, who is still collecting money from these people to stop forthwith…I have seen poverty in my personal life and I know what that small N2, 000 means to them.

    “It is clear to emphasise here that at this point, no nation, no state and no administrative authority can tax her people to prosperity…God has given us an elevated platform of authority to use our intellects and support them and not to suppress them. Why would government put a burden on people earning less than a N1, 000 a day with wife and children, shopping in the same market with the rich, who earn over N300, 000 monthly? I would rather tax my intellect to prosperity than taxing my people because we have sufficient education, exposure and experience, which we need to bring to bear for the prosperity of our people, which is why they elected us.”

    That was in 2017. YES 2017!!!. Very characteristic of Ayade. He cried after that. Three years after, more than 70 percent of businesses operating in Calabar have left because of multiple taxation.

    Yesterday, he repeated almost the same words he spewed in 2017 verbatim and cried again and the gullible are already crying along with him.

    That is not all!

    In August 2016, Governor Ayade visited Bakassi and cried after seeing the conditions that some returnees lived in. He made an instant donation of N3million. He was accompanied by a representative of the Mayor of Dortmund, Fuss Friedrich whom he said will build free houses for the returnees. He had introduced the man who followed him as the Mayor but it turned out he was “lying.”

    Again in March 2017, during the courtesy visit of the National Commissioner of the National Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Hajia Sadiya Farouk in the government house, Governor Ayade cried over the status of the Bakassi returnees. He wept and vowed to do everything he can to resettle the people of Bakassi and called on government not to neglect them. I don’t know whether the people of Bakassi have been resettled after that crying.

    April 10, 2018, Governor Ayade also broke down in tears at the conference room of the government house when he asked his aide on Religious Affairs, Rev. Fr. Bob Etta to pray while signing the NGN1.3 trillion budget of Kinetic Crystallization into law. He cried also because he said the budget was going to de-couple the State from federal allocation and lift the poor out of poverty.

    But shortly after that, CrossRiverWatch news editor, Jonathan Ugbal and three others were arrested for allegedly photographing two commissioners including the immediate past Attorney General of the State, that were sleeping during that exercise. Till date, even the hard copy of the budget is not available to the public not to talk of the promises inside.

    My ten kobo advise to my governor is that the poor can never be freed from poverty by exempting them from taking responsibility. Taxation is not a burden. It is a civic duty for the collective good of the society. Taxes should be reduced, rebates given and made convenient for even the poorest of the citizens to pay with intermittent holidays. Taxes should not be a burden but they should also not be taken away. They are our right and civic duty. Taxes are Biblical. Taxes are a way of ensuring that every citizen of age and ability takes responsibility for the collective upkeep of the society and also ensure government is accountable. Every government that wants to abolish taxes is tilting towards a lack of accountability.

    In a state where the total monthly IGR is less than N1billion and federal allocation is one of the lowest amidst crashing oil prices, abolition of taxes is not magnanimity. It is naivety. Don’t come here and tell me about those thrash called I-Money and G-Money and OPM.

    Finally, I agree wholely that crying is not a sign of weakness. We all cry. I cry too. Even our Lord Jesus cried. But what the governor needed to do yesterday was not another round of crying or a regurgitation of same things he has been saying since 2017 as if he was saying something new, he rather needs to ensure that his aides take him more seriously and respect his orders and commands and directives. If they had done that, poor people would have long had some respite from the tax masters over 3 years ago and our cry cry baby in Peregrino House would have rested his face towel, at least…

    Yours sincerely
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

    #1103DaysToGo
    #CryCryGovernor
    #StopCryingDoTheWork
    #HoldLeadersAccountable

     

    NB. The Opinions Expressed Are Of Agba Jalingo In His Personal Capacity And Does Not Representing THE LUMINE NEWS.

    [contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form]

  • Court Awards One Million Against FG over #RevolutionNow Protest Disruption

    Court Awards One Million Against FG over #RevolutionNow Protest Disruption

    Curled From Punch

    ‌

    The Federal High Court in Lagos has awarded N1m against the Federal Government over the police disruption of the August 5, 2019 #RevolutionNow protest.

    The court awarded the N1m in favour of a Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, who said he participated in the #RevolutionNow protest and was among those tear-gassed by security agents.

    The nationwide protest was convened by the publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, who was arrested by the Department of State Services on August 3.

    The court, in a judgment by Justice Maureen Onyetenu, declared the disruption of the peaceful protest by the Federal Government, through the police, as “ illegal, oppressive, undemocratic and unconstitutional.”

    The judge agreed with the applicant in the suit, Ogungbeje, who sued on behalf of himself and other participants in the protest, that the Federal Government deprived them of their right to peaceful assembly and association, in violation of sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution.

    The judge also condemned “the mass arrest, harassment, tear-gassing, and clamping into detention” of the protesters.

    Ogungbeje had urged the court to award N500m as general and exemplary damages against the Federal Government, DSS, and the Attorney General of the Federation, but the court only awarded N1m.

    The judge also upheld the defence of the DSS that it was not involved in the disruption of the protest.

    In the affidavit, which he filed in support of the suit, Ogungbeje said when he was co-opted into the #RevolutionNow protest, as a lawyer, he checked the constitution and found that it was lawful.

    He, however, said on getting to the take-off point of the protest in Lagos “I met agents and operatives of the respondents who had barricaded the venue of the peaceful protest for good governance in Nigeria.

    “I was tear-gassed by agents of the respondents and the peaceful protest was forcefully disrupted by the respondents.

    “I have been denied my fundamental constitutional rights of peaceful assembly and association by the respondents, without cause.”

    Apart from the N1m award, the court also ordered the Federal Government to tender a public apology to the applicant in three national daily newspapers.

  • Agba Jalingo Calls On C’River National Assembly Members To Bring ATM Machines That Dispenses Rice

    Agba Jalingo Calls On C’River National Assembly Members To Bring ATM Machines That Dispenses Rice

    By Elijah Ugani – Calabar

    A global symbol of press freedom, winner of several human rights and press freedom awards as well as Amnesty International Prisoner of conscience, Agba Jalingo has called on National Assembly members from cross river to consider bringing into the state ATM machine that dispenses rice to indigent rural dwellers as we continue to endure the rule of Covid 19 lockdown.

    Jalingo took to his Facebook wall to express his concerns stated that “I want to call on my member re presenting our federal constituency, (Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwarra) in the House of Representatives, Legor Idagbo and the member representing Ogoja/Yala, Jarigbe Agom as well as all state lawmakers from Cross River to consider bringing in ATM that dispenses rice to indigent rural dwellers, as we continue to endure rule Covid 19 lockdown”

    Continuing, the human right activist maintained that “Instead of giving palliatives to PDP ward Chairman, youth and women leaders to share, these ATM machines will substantially reduce the Chances of manipulating donations by local party leaders”