Lasun Alagbe
Publisher of ‘Cross River Watch’, Agba Jalingo, has said that the state Governor Ben Ayade’s claim that he got a car from him is false.
The journalist, who suffered prolonged detention over what he claimed to be the orders of Ayade, said he got into trouble with the governor because he (Ayade) was criticising him.
Ayade had, however, said that he had no hand in Jalino’s ordeal, saying it was the Federal Government that had a case with him.
According to the governor, Jalingo is a brother of his and that he has done a lot to help him.
There are also stories of giving the journalist a car, having rented an office for him and outright blackmail.
But speaking on a TVC programme on Friday, Jalingo said the car the governor referred to could be the one he donated to the association of online journalists in the state.
He said, “After his election, he still has some of the Siena cars he used for campaign. The association approached him and it gave the association one of the cars. It is not my own and I have never driven that car,” he said.
The journalist also refuted a claim that the governor rented his office for him.
According to him, his online platform was established in 2012, before Ayade became a governor.
He noted that it was in 2013 he was able to rent an office after having put up with someone.
On why he is criticising the governor, Ayade said he was fighting sleaze and injustice.
“When you became governor you met elected local government chairmen in office.Why are you then disallowing an election now? This is the question I am asking, but he said I wanted to teach him how to run the state,” he noted.
On the allegation that money was sent to him when he was in prison, Jalingo said it was a lie.
On Innoson cars distributorship which he got, on which he allegedly sought Ayade’s patronage, Jalingo said that was not peculiar to anyone. He said he sought the state government’s patronage as he sought that of other states in the country.
While also debunking an allegation that the governor opened a computer school for him, saying he had no facility like that, the journalist said the only time he received money from Ayade was when the governor sent a delegation to attend nd his (Jalingo’s) mother’s burial, when the group, according to him, gave him N50,000.
He added, “He said he sent money to me in when I was in prison. I never got any money from anyone. The person should bring the money to me if he did, I came out of prison broke.”
Alleging that the government had got some other journalists arrested, Jalingo vowed that he would not stop critisinng Ayade.
“If I am not able to challenge him, my brother, when an Efik man comes, where will I find the ball to ask questions? My brother finds that insolent. He still looks at me like that small boy from the village.”
