DSS arrests Sowore at over #EndBadGovernance protests

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested the convener of #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, per a report by Sahara Reporters.

Sowore was arrested at the airport on Sunday immediately upon his arrival in Nigeria. SaharaReporters earlier on Sunday reported that members of the Take It Back Movement and other activists had besieged the airport to await the activist’s return to the country.

Sowore had been with his family in the United States.His flight left the Washington Dulles International Airport at 6.14 EDT and arrived in Lagos at around 9.43 WAT.

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, SaharaReporters exclusively reported that a DSS memo ordering the arrest of the convener of Sowore upon his arrival in Nigeria had leaked. Following the report, Sowore lambasted the DSS for issuing a directive for his arrest on his arrival in Nigeria, disclosing that his intention was to return to the country ‘very soon’.

Earlier in September, SaharaReporters reported that Nigeria’s secret police, DSS, had instructed airport security and immigration authorities to intercept and detain Sowore upon his arrival in Nigeria. It was learnt that the directive, issued by the newly appointed DSS Director General, Adeola Ajayi, stemmed from Sowore’s role in the recent 10-day #EndBadGovernance protests.

Meanwhile, a trusted source at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos recently revealed to SaharaReporters that Ajayi had included Sowore’s name on a security watchlist, citing his involvement in the #EndBadGovernance protests and forthcoming October 1 demonstration as justification. “The new DSS boss forwarded Sowore’s name to airport security for him to be arrested whenever he enters the country,” the source said.