The Department of State Services (DSS) has returned the passport of award-winning investigative journalist Adejuwon Soyinka, following an incident where he was mistakenly arrested and detained. Soyinka, who serves as the West Africa Regional Editor at The Conversation Africa, retrieved his passport on Friday at the DSS office in Ikoyi, Lagos, accompanied by human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong.
Soyinka was initially arrested on Sunday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and was held for approximately eight hours by the DSS, both at their Airport Command and later at their Ikoyi office. Following his release, Soyinka’s passport was withheld, though no formal allegations were made against him. He later revealed that his name had been placed on a DSS watchlist at the request of an unnamed government agency.
On Friday, after the return of Soyinka’s passport, the DSS operatives attributed the entire incident to a case of mistaken identity. Effiong, who accompanied Soyinka to retrieve the passport, expressed that he was not surprised by the DSS’s explanation.
This development concludes a tense week for Soyinka, who endured hours of detention without clear charges and faced significant disruption due to the seizure of his passport.
