OPERATIVES of the State Security Service (SSS) have returned the seized passport of investigative journalist, Adejuwon Soyinka, blaming his arrest on “possible mistaken identity.”
Soyinka reclaimed his passport on Friday, August 30, after being accompanied by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, on a visit to the DSS office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The SSS’ explained that Soyinka’s arrest was because his name was placed on its watchlist at the request of an unnamed government agency, after which the entire saga was blamed on a possible mistaken identity.
But Inibehe said the secret police’s decision to blame the incident on possible mistaken identity did not surprise him.
The ICIR reported that the SSS arrested Soyinka on Sunday, August 25.
One of his friends sent a distress message, stating that he was taken into custody shortly after he arrived from the United Kingdom, without being informed of the reason for his arrest, and was held in isolation without access to communication.
However, he was released from detention on the same day. The SSS agreed to release him on bail through the efforts of the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, which intervened on his behalf.
As part of his bail conditions, the agency seized his passport and asked him to provide his Nigerian address and reliable phone number through which he could be reached anytime.
“I have just been released by the DSS in Lagos. They are holding on to my passport, though. I am on an Uber ride ordered for me by the deputy director of SSS in Lagos. I will speak better when I get home,” Soyinka wrote on his social media handle after his release.
The ICIR reported in December 2023 how security agents abused their power and flouted the Nigerian Constitution by harassing 39 journalists in the line of duty, nationwide.
Four reporters with The ICIR were harassed by state actors in the line of duty that year.
Meanwhile, in 2024, the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja invited and detained The ICIR’s executive director, Dayo Aiyetan, and reporter, Nurudeen Akewushola, over an investigation of sleazes in which its former Inspector-Generals were complicit.
This organisation reported that a reporter, Daniel Ojukwu, was abducted by officials of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun on May 1, two days before World Press Freedom Day.
His abduction only became known on Friday, May 3, after spending four days with the police in Lagos State.
These are a few incidents among several cases of attack on the media in Nigeria by President Bola Tinubu’s government.
On August 25, this organisation published a report asking the government if it could ever guarantee press freedom as journalists are persistently harassed and incarcerated under a President who owns some of the biggest media outfits in the country.