Activist and presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has said that journalist Zainab Sodiq was not arrested and detained because of any drone, contrary to the hurriedly put-together fable by the Department of State Services (DSS).

MyNigeria reported that the DSS confirmed on Thursday the detention of the journalist at its National Headquarters in Abuja.

In a statement, the DSS said the subject was intercepted by FAAN AVSEC and operatives of DSS at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on July 6, 2026, with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) en route Abuja from MMIA border control without an 'End User Certificate' (EUC).

"It is to be noted that, in compliance with National Security Adviser (NSA), Extant Regulations, which placed restrictions on acquisition and use of drones, Sodiq was intercepted while trying to board a flight to Abuja. When confronted, she admitted to not being in possession of the required documents," the secret police said.

Following due process, Sodiq was allowed to board her scheduled flight due to a prior engagement in Abuja. She was, however, directed to report on Wednesday, 8 July, to continue an investigation opened concerning her situation.

The DSS stated that the investigation is further in compliance with the NSA's extant rules, which confer on it the powers to impound and sanction any individual or corporate entity operating a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)/Drone in any part of the country without authorisation. It said the action is necessitated by global and domestic security concerns associated with the operation of drones, especially issues of privacy breaches and individual safety.

Dismissing the claims, Sowore stated that Sodiq was targeted because the DG of the DSS, Tosin Ajayi, knew that she worked with him and had been after her for some time, which he publicly disclosed months ago.

"The DJI Mavic Air drone in question belongs personally to me. When DSS personnel at the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal seized it from Zainab on Monday on her way to Abuja, I personally spoke with their personnel in Lagos. I explained that the drone was mine, that Zainab was a journalist covering my activities, and that it was a commercial media drone I had used to cover elections and other public events. The earlier version was seized from me by the DSS in Ondo state during the 2019 general elections; they never returned it.

"When they seized the drone, I told Zainab to leave it with them at the airport in Lagos and return to Abuja because she was carrying my international passport. The passport had to be deposited in court on Monday as part of the bail conditions imposed on me by Justice M.G. Umar. The DSS lawyer, AT Kehinde, SAN, had insisted that I be sent back to Kuje prison after Justice Umar imposed fresh bail conditions on me, including the deposit of my passport," he said.

Sowore revealed that the real objective was to prevent Sodiq from reaching Abuja with his International passport, frustrate the perfection of his bail, and create an excuse to send him back to the overcrowded Kuje Prison to get infected with tuberculosis.

"The next phase of repression was going to be biological warfare against me.

"Zainab was in possession of my passport and had also sworn to an affidavit connected with my bail process. She traveled by Bolt to meet DSS personnel at their office. According to the account available to us, when she arrived, she was taken into custody so abruptly that she was not even allowed to settle the fare with her Bolt driver.

"About two hours after Zainab became unreachable, our lawyers contacted Lawless DG, Tosin Ajayi. He acknowledged that she was in DSS custody and described what was happening as a “routine screening” connected to her possession of a drone. He reportedly asked our lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, to proceed to the DSS office regarding her release. Marshal Abubakar proceeded to the DSS headquarters to secure her release, and the story changed.

"We were later told that the DSS leadership was angry because I had publicly exposed Zainab's unlawful detention via social media posts. Instead of addressing the legality of holding a Nigerian citizen, the concern of Tosin Ajayi became I had posted about it on social media.

"This is what happens when personal ego is placed above citizens' fundamental rights.

"Of course, this is part of a broader pattern of impunity: repression of critics, harassment of journalists and activists, and the use of state institutions against citizens who challenge those in power.

"To Tosin Ajayi and those operating this machinery of repression, Nigeria appears to be the private property of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is not.

"Nigeria belongs to the Nigerian people, and no amount of intimidation, detention, propaganda, or repression will change that.

"Every lie has an expiration date. Every act of impunity will not be tolerated.

"Tosin Ajayi is a man with an ego that couldn't fit only in the back of a DSS HILUX van didn't consider the fundamental rights of a Nigerian journalist carrying out her legitimate constitutional duty, he was more concerned about his oversized ego, the reason he bribes NGOS and professional bodies like the NUJ to give him fake awards, the reason he connives with judges to jail me because I challenge the impunity he supervises, the reason he run a DSS agency whose biggest budget is not dedicated to its workers but Social Media trolls, the reason he is engaging in impunity," he said.