Breaking: DSS arrests journalist, Adejuwon Soyinka on arrival from UK, released

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The Department of State Service, DSS, arrested and later released the Regional Editor West Africa of the Conversation Africa, Juwon Soyinka.

He was arrested in the early hours of Sunday at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

He was released after the intervention of the spokesperson for the Department of State Services, Dr Peter Afunayan, although his international passport h
Was being kept.

The former Pioneer Editor of the BBC Pidgin Service was said to have been taken into custody at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State after alighting from a Virgin Atlantic flight from the United Kingdom.

A distress message sent to this newspaper by one of his friends stated that Soyinka was picked up shortly after arriving from the United Kingdom.

The friend in the message said no reason was given for his arrest and Soyinka had been held incommunicado.

The message read, “Adejuwon Soyinka has been detained by officers of the Department of State Security at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

“The incident happened around 5.40 am on Sunday, the 25th of August, 2024, shortly after he arrived in Nigeria via a Virgin Atlantic flight from the United Kingdom.

“As at the time of this report, no reason had been given for his detention by the security agency. Soyinka has not been reachable as messages and calls to his phone have been unanswered.”