The Department of State Services (DSS) has returned the passport of award-winning investigative journalist, Adejuwon Soyinka, days after it was seized during his detention at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
Soyinka, who is the West Africa Regional Editor at The Conversation Africa, retrieved his passport on Friday after being accompanied to the DSS office in Ikoyi by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong.
Soyinka was arrested by DSS operatives on Sunday at the airport and was held for about eight hours, during which he was interrogated at both the DSS Airport Command and the agency’s Ikoyi office.
Although he was released later that day, his passport was withheld by the DSS.
Upon his release, Soyinka stated that no specific allegations were made against him by the DSS, and he later learned that his name had been placed on a watchlist at the request of an unnamed government agency.
The DSS has since suggested that his arrest and detention may have been due to a case of mistaken identity.
Effiong, who accompanied Soyinka to retrieve his passport, confirmed that the DSS operatives apologized for the incident and returned the journalist’s passport without further issues.
He said, “I went with Soyinka to retrieve his passport today. The secret police’s decision to blame the whole incident on possible mistaken identity did not come to me as a surprise.”
