According to a report by Sahara Reporters on Saturday, September 13, 2025, Nigerian activist-journalist and publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Agba Jalingo, has described the country’s prison system as a cesspool of corruption where money dictates the conditions of inmates.
Speaking during an interview on Perspectives, an Arise TV programme, Jalingo alleged that with the right amount of cash, prisoners can access virtually anything behind bars — including drugs and sex.
He said, “There is no detention centre in Nigeria that you don’t pay. Bail is not free, prison visits are not free. Inmates who have money live large inside prison. They have phones, drugs, everything they want. The only things I didn’t see in jail were human parts and guns. Every other thing, including cocaine and sex, is available once you can pay.”
He recounted his own ordeals, including being bundled in the boot of a Toyota Highlander from Lagos to Calabar for 26 hours during the administration of former Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade.
According to him, he was forced to defecate on himself twice before being held at the anti-cultism unit in Calabar for 43 days and later remanded in prison for six months on charges of terrorism, treason, and attempting to overthrow then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Although acquitted, Jalingo said harassment persisted, citing his arraignment in Abuja under the controversial Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act, a law he insists was created “mainly to deal with journalists and dissenters.”
He linked his revelations to a wider pattern of police abuse, echoing earlier testimony on the programme by Media Room Hub publisher, Azuka Ogujiuba, who recounted being detained in an unsanitary Abuja cell for three days after police tracked and arrested her over a court order she published.
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