*Heads may roll
By Our Reporter
The failure of officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to act on the advisory by the Department of State Services (DSS) removing Mr. Omoyele Sowore from a security watchlist led to the Sunday morning arrest of the activist and presidential candidate of African Action Alliance (AAA) in Lagos.
Shortly after Sowore arrived in the country through the Murttala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, Immigration officers, citing “orders to do so,” seized his passport and detained him.
“I had just arrived in Nigeria from the USA at MMIA in Lagos; upon reaching Nigerian Immigration, my passport was seized, and they told me they had orders to detain me. This is not unexpected because I have always known that it is part of the broader clampdown by the fascist @officialAbat regime on dissent and their fear of the upcoming #FearlessINOctober revolt,” Tweeted Sowore.
Several news organization quickly broke the story alleging that the Department of State Services (DSS) had arrested Sowore.
The Authority gathered that a top presidential aide quickly contacted the new Director-General of the DSS, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi on the development which, apparently, had embarrassed government.
Unknown to the presidential aide, The Authority gathered, the new DSS boss had on assumption of duty, reviewed the security watchlist by his immediate predecessor, Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi, removing Sowore and other persons from the list. It was further gathered that Ajayi is reviewing the cases of all the inmates in their detention facilities.
“It is, true. The DSS relayed the advisory by their new DG removing Sowore and other persons of interest to us in the NIS,” an Immigration source told The Authority, adding, “I can’t say if our boys at the MMA weren’t notified.”
“The DSS DG was understandably angry that that we failed to act on a security advisory he shared with security agencies several days before Sowore stepped foot in Nigeria. It was even more shameful that even after Sowore clearly wrote that we (NIS) were responsible for his ordeal, several media houses still falsely accused the DSS of the action,” the immigration officer regretted.
“I am aware that the new DSS DG quickly contacted our CG on the embarrassing development. She promptly directed that Sowore’s passport be released and he be allowed to go. I am sure she (NIS DG) is going to investigate why the advisory by the DG DSS was not conveyed to our officers at the MMIA,” added the immigration officer.
Moments later, Sowore disclosed via his X account that he had been released by the Nigerian Immigration Service, adding that his international passport which had been confiscated had been returned to him.
“I have just been released by the Nigerian Immigration after a brief detention and my passport released back to me,” declared Sowore.
