Nigerian activist Omoyele Sowore has shared the details of what happened after he was briefly detained at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. The incident occurred upon his arrival in Nigeria on Sunday.
According to Sowore, he was stopped by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) upon entering the country. He explained that this was not a surprise, as he has been on the Nigerian government’s watchlist since 1992, dating back to his time as a university student.
Sowore, who was the 2023 presidential candidate for the African Action Congress (AAC), further revealed that after his release, he discovered one of his bags was missing. Despite being freed, he had to deal with the loss of his belongings.
In an interview with News Central at the airport following his release, the former AAC candidate described his experience, expressing frustration over the missing bag.
He said,
“Well I am back home but it was because when I left in March and also in May I did make a promise that I’ll be back, that I’m not going anywhere from Nigeria. So it doesn’t matter what anybody tries to do and that is why when I was informed and I got a copy of their memo that I was declared wanted, it just made me feel very proud that I was once again upgraded by Nigerian government.
“I’ve been on the watch list of Nigerian government since I was in the university in 1992, but I found out officially that I’ve been upgraded to the highest possible level. They have different grades. There are people who they watch just generally if you are leaving the country, they just try to figure out where you’re going, but the level that I’m on is a level in which whenever I arrive, I’m supposed to be accompanied, arrested, and detained and taken to the office of the DG of DSS. That’s the level that I am. I think it’s the highest level. It’s like the GCFR of the National Award for Troublemakers.
“When I arrived, they seized my passport. The immigration guys seized my passport when I presented my passport for processing. And then after I was standing around for a while, I asked them what’s the problem? They said there is some notation on my passport, that needs clarification from Abuja. And I said who is that? Who put the, of course I knew, and they said they’re going to make all kinds of calls, and then they asked me to sit down at the place.
“I sat down beside them after a while. I went back to them and asked what’s going on and it’s been like 30 minutes at this point. And they said they’re still waiting for Abuja to clarify and then they took me to the office where I was briefly detained.
“And then some, I tweeted before going into that office and some, ten minutes later they came and said, it’s been resolved. You can go. So I went to try and get my bag. Of course one of my bags was missing. I hope it’s not the DSS that stole it. It’s missing but I’ve incidented it with the airline to look for it because the tracking on my phone from the airline shows that the bag arrived. So but like I said, I don’t want to, I hope they didn’t try to do something stupid with my bag.”
