By CrossRiverWatch Admin
A defamation petition filed by Mrs. Elizabeth Alami Ayade, wife of Dr. Frank Ayade, the younger brother of Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade led to the arrest of Citizen Agba Jalingo, publisher of CrossRiverWatch, and the attempted kidnapping of his staff on Friday.
Mrs. Alami Ayade, through her lawyers in Abuja – Uyi Frank Obayagbona & Co had written to Citizen Jalingo, claiming he wrote a defamatory article about her and wants N500 million as compensation. But the letter was served on August 14th with Citizen Jalingo given two weeks to delete the article and comply, or else redress will be sought in court.
Citizen Jalingo had alleged that Mr. Paschal Aboh, who is currently being tried by a court in Abuja for alleged examination malpractice, was writing in place of a prominent Obudu woman.
He further took to social media to state that Mrs. Alami Ayade has denied reports linking her to the trial of Paschal, a law lecturer at the University of Calabar.
Yesterday, men of the Nigeria Police Force in plain cloth, surrounded his Ogudu residence in Lagos State, holding his wife, and daughter hostage for over an hour. Mr. Jalingo had raised the alarm at about 4:00 PM and refused to step out since the Policemen did not identify themselves.
The Police sent reinforcements, who informed him that the plain cloth officers were sent from Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. No warrant of arrest was served upon him before he was taken away to Alapere Police station where he was interrogated by the Divisional Police Officer after he refused to write a statement, insisting that he wants a copy of the petition and his lawyer to be present.
At about two hours, seven minutes after storming Jalingo’s Lagos residence (6:07 PM), there were attempts to abduct CrossRiverWatch staff in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. A staff member was chased by a dark-grey-colored Toyota Corolla with heavily tinted glass back into the office.
After hovering around for about an hour and failing to get staff to open the gate, they left.
At press time, Citizen Jalingo was transferred to Area F Zonal Command at Ikeja in preparation for transfer to Abuja today (Saturday).
The arrest comes three days shy of the third anniversary of his arrest on August 22, 2019, where he eventually spent 179 days incarcerated in Police and Prison custody.
He was eventually discharged and acquitted of all charges which bordered on terrorism, treasonable felony, and attempts to overthrow the government of Governor Ayade.
See the petition from Frank Ayade’s wife below.
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