The Department of State Services (DSS) has returned the passport of Adejuwon Soyinka, West African Editor of The Conversation Africa, which was seized following his arrest last week.
Soyinka, who is also the founding editor of BBC Pidgin, was detained by the DSS on August 25 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos shortly after arriving from the UK. According to Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, Soyinka was arrested at the request of another agency.
The journalist was released hours later after the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria intervened, but his passport remained in DSS custody.
On Friday, Soyinka, accompanied by human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong, went to the DSS office in Ikoyi, Lagos, to retrieve his passport. Effiong later stated that the DSS attributed Soyinka’s arrest to a case of “mistaken identity.”
Soyinka’s arrest is the latest in a series of incidents involving journalists under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Earlier this year, Segun Olatunji, a former editor of FirstNews, was arrested in Lagos, and in May, Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), was detained by the police for 10 days. Additionally, freelance journalist Jamil Mabai was detained by Katsina’s Hisbah religious police.
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) has also detained several journalists and whistleblowers based on petitions filed against them. Numerous journalists were also harassed and assaulted during the #EndBadGovernance protests across the country.
