A federal high court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State has granted Agba Jalingo N10 million naira bail.
Justice Sule Shaibu granted him bail after ss River State Government amended charges against him.
The journalist spent a total of 174 days in detention in both the police cell and Calabar prison.
The judge granted Jalingo bail following an application from his lawyer, Attah Ochinke.
The court asked that those standing as surety for the journalist must make a refundable deposit of N700,000 to court registry to perfect the bail.
Mr Jalingo was earlier denied bail twice by another judge, Simon Amobeda, who recently withdrew from the case after a secret recording where he (Amobeda) allegedly made some “biased” remarks against Mr Jalingo, was leaked to the press late last year.
Mr Amobeda is also a judge of the Federal High Court, Calabar.
Mr Jalingo’s case is prosecuted by the Cross River government which took over the case from the police.
On the prosecution team were led the Attorney General of Cross River state, Tanko Ashang, and the Director of Public Prosecution in the state’s Ministry of Justice, Greg Okem.
Apart from Mr Ochinke, James Ibor appeared in court for the journalist.
Mr Jalingo arrived at the court at 9:36 a.m., wearing an orange shirt with the inscription #IAmAgbaJalingo, blue jeans, and a blue fez cap with the same inscription.
He was not handcuffed, unlike some of his previous appearances in court. Six other prison inmates were inside the van that brought him to court, they were guarded by an armed and two unarmed prison officials.
