DSS Planning To Arrest Me – Investigative Journalist Soyombo Cries Out

September 19, (THEWILL) – The Department of State Services (DSS) is reportedly planning the imminent arrest of Fisayo Soyombo, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).

A security official, speaking anonymously, revealed to FIJ on Wednesday, that the DSS is actively tracking Soyombo’s location, stating his arrest could happen “any moment from now, once they can trace his whereabouts.”

Meanwhile, FIJ said it could not immediately establish why the DSS would be after Soyombo, or “if it is because of his work as an investigative/undercover reporter, as a social critic on microblogging platform X, or as the founder of FIJ, an online newspaper that exposes injustice and holds the government to account.”

Recently, Soyombo released an undercover investigation which shed light on illegal smuggling and arms trafficking in Nigeria.

Drawing public attention to alleged rot in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the report Titled: “Undercover As A Smuggler”, detailed several high-ranking officials, including current Comptroller-General of Customs, Hussein Ejibunu and other senior officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). One particular smuggler, IBD Dende, was even caught on camera threatening to kill an Assistant Superintendent of Customs (ASC), who had intercepted his goods.

Soyombo’s recent criticisms of X often feature the disrepute to which the DSS has fallen, being a state security service that has now become a tool for hounding journalists and activists.

On Wednesday, FIJ reported how Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, allegedly received N700 million from the state house to purchase dollars for foreign trips between November and March. This is despite claiming at an event before Tinubu’s inauguration in 2023, that her family was blessed and they did not need Nigeria’s wealth.

THEWILL recalls that Soyombo was recently detained by the Inspector General of Police’s Monitoring Unit and the Nigeria Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre, both times after voluntarily responding to police invitations.