The Department of State Services (DSS) has described the arrest of Adejuwon Soyinka, the West African Editor of the Conversation Africa and the seizure of his passport as a case of ‘mistaken identity’.
The development emerged after Soyinka’s passport, seized by the secret police was returned to him six days after he was detained by the Service.
The DSS said Soyinka’s name was placed on its watchlist at the request of an unnamed government agency.
The pioneer editor of the BBC Pidgin Service upon his return from the United Kingdom was held and interrogated for about eight hours at both the DSS airport command and the agency’s Ikoyi office.
He was subsequently released after the intervention of various media rights groups, but his passport remained confiscated.
On Friday, Soyinka visited the Service office in Ikoyi, accompanied by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong to retrieve the passport.
Effoing said, “The secret police’s decision to blame the whole incident on possible mistaken identity did not come to me as a surprise.”
It is uncertain if the journalist would sue the DSS for the violation of his fundamental human rights.
‘Case Of Mistaken Identity’ — DSS Returns Journalist Soyinka’s Passport is first published on The Whistler Newspaper