DSS releases Adejuwon Soyinka’s passport, attributes arrest to ‘mistaken identity’

The Department of State Services (DSS) has returned the seized passport of Adejuwon Soyinka, the West African editor of The Conversation Africa.

On August 25, Soyinka was detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, shortly after arriving from the UK.

Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, told pressmen that Soyinka, the pioneer editor of the BBC pidgin service, was arrested at the request of another agency.

A few hours after his arrest, the journalist was released following the intervention of the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, a global network of editors, media executives, and communication experts. But his passport remained seized.

On Friday, Soyinka was accompanied by Inibehe Effiong, the human rights lawyer, to the DSS office in Ikoyi, Lagos to retrieve the passport.

Speaking on the development, Effiong said the secret police attributed the arrest of the journalist to “mistaken identity”.

The arrest of Soyinka is the latest in the spate of attacks against journalists under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

In March, Segun Olatunji, a former editor of FirstNews, was arrested in Lagos.

In May, Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), was detained by the police for 10 days.

Jamil Mabai, a freelance journalist, was also detained by the Katsina Hisbah religious police.

The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) has also detained several journalists and whistleblowers over petitions filed against them.

Several journalists were also harrassed and assaulted during the #EndBadGovernance protests across the country.