The Department of State Services (DSS) has blamed the arrest of the pioneer editor of BBC Pidgin Adejuwon Soyinka on “mistaken identity,” according to his lawyer Inibehe Effiong.
Soyinka was on Friday accompanied to the DSS’ office in Ikoyi, Lagos by Effiong as they both retrieved his passport held by the secret police.
The journalist, now West African regional editor of The Conversation Africa, was detained by DSS operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos around 5.40 a.m last Sunday.
This happened upon his arrival from the United Kingdom via a Virgin Atlantic flight.
He was held and interrogated for about eight hours at both the DSS Airport Command and the agency’s Ikoyi office.
Soyinka was later released while his passport was withheld.
DSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya earlier said the journalist was arrested based on a request from another government agency.
Effiong said, according to PUNCH, that after Soyinka got his passport back, the DSS operatives blamed his arrest and detention on possible mistaken identity.
He said, “I went with Soyinka to retrieve his passport today. The secret police’s decision to blame the whole incident on possible mistaken identity did not come to me as a surprise.”
Soyinka was a media aide of former governor Ibikunle Amosun before joining BBC.