Agba Jalingo accuses judge of bias, asks CJ to reassign case

In his quest for fair hearing, Agba Jalingo, the journalist standing trial for treason in Calabar, Cross River State has asked the Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal High Court to reassign his case to another judge outside the Calabar Division.

He cited prejudice for his request in a letter to the CJ dated November 27, 2019 in which he prayed the CJ to take his case before Justice Simon Amoeba to another judge.

Jalingo, who is publisher of CrossRiverWatch has been awaiting trial before Justice Amoeba in a suit marked: FHC/CA/59C/2019, wherein the Federal Government charged him for alleged disturbance of public peace and treason for his writing and social media post on Cross River Governor, Benedict Ayade.

He alleged that the judge handling his matter discussed his case with unidentified persons, saying it was published in an online medium.

According to him, my attention has been drawn to a publication in The Cable, an online medium in which a secret audio recording Justice Simon Amoeba discussing my case with an unidentified person on November 14, 2019 was exposed.

“Everything said in the recording was to strangers who had no business whatsoever in my case. It was behind my back, my counsel, prosecutor, and on the day in which my case did not come up before the judge.

“In the recording, Justice Amoeba promised to treat me like Ken Saro-Wiwa and that I will be convicted and sentenced as the late Sar-Wiwa treated by a military tribunal during the late General Sanni Abacha era,” he said.

Jalingo further stated that the judge implied that in his court, it was a matter of favour rather than of law and justice.