DSS releases Adejuwon Soyinka’s seized passport, blames arrest on mistaken identity

The Department State Services (DSS) on Friday returned the seized passport of the multiple-award winning investigative journalist, Adejuwon Soyinka, blaming his arrest on “possible mistaken identity.”

Inibehe Effiong, human rights activist and public interest lawyer, accompanied Soyinka on a visit to the DSS office in Ikoyi, Lagos, to retrieve the seized passport.

Reacting to the development, Effiong said “the secret police’s decision to blame the whole incident on possible mistaken identity did not come to me as a surprise.”

The lawyer did not say if his client would sue the DSS for the unwarranted violation of his fundamental human rights as a result of professional incompetence and recklessness.

Soyinka was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, shortly after arriving on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London, UK on Sunday, August 25.

The pioneer editor of the BBC Pidgin Service was subsequently held and interrogated for about 8 hours at both the DSS airport command and the agency’s Ikoyi office.

He was later released on self recognisance while his passport was withheld.

The DSS’ first explanation for the arrest was that Soyinka’s name was placed on its watchlist on the request of an unnamed government agency.

It later blamed the entire saga on a possible mistaken identity.