A U.S-based Nigerian author and critic whom the DSS took in for questioning on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Saturday by officers of the State Security Service (SSS), has been released.
According to Sahara Reporters, Okey Ndibe said the officials made him the offer to go to Abuja to apply for removal of his name from the secret police’s watchlist.
The watchlist by which the SSS has been arresting Ndibe might have been drawn up the late President Umaru Yar’Adua government which was angry about criticism of the flawed election that brought it to power and several leaks regarding his state of health.
“I told the SSS that it’s a shame a country that rolls out the red carpet for criminals would harass a writer who wages war on corruption and the corrupt,” said Ndibe.
The novelist was arrested and questioned for several hours at the same airport by the SSS, and his American and Nigerian passports confiscated for two days.
International bodies, including Reporters Without Borders, challenged the SSS to explain the reason for the arrest.