The State Security Service, DSS has detained another Nigerian journalist over yet undisclosed reasons at the airport in Lagos on Thursday.
Lanre Arogundade posted on social media update on Thursday afternoon that he was detained by the secret police as he arrived in Lagos from Banjul, where he had gone to train some reporters on conflict coverage.
Apparently peeved by this ugly development, Arogundade posted this on his FB page:”This is me at the DSS office at International Airport Lagos where I’m being held or detained against my wish. I have just returned from Banjul where I went to train Gambian journalists on Conflict sensitive journalism. Ever since the days of military rule I get molested by DSS and Immigration at the airport. This nonsense has to stop!
The veteran journalist, who has led the Lagos-based media rights think-tank IPC for several years, did not immediately express knowledge of why he was being held against his wish.
The SSS, which erstwhile military dictators established as a national security outfit for regime protection, has long been known to ambush journalists, political activists and dissidents across the nation’s airports.
A spokesman for the secret police did not immediately return a request for comment. But campaign for Mr Arogundade’s release has started gaining steam as words spread of the development.
Tufts University rights professor Chidi Odinkalu has condemned the SSS’ action on his social media handles and demanded Mr Arogundade’s immediate release.