However, DSS is yet to confirm the arrest of Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters and convener of #RevolutionNow protest billed to hold in Lagos on Monday, August 5, 2019.
Earlier before Sowore’s whereabouts became unknown, he had made a distress tweet via his Twitter handle at 1:25 am claiming he was being trailed.
His tweet was followed by a tweet from someone who claimed to be an eyewitness, confirming that Sowore’s phone was forcefully taken away from him.
Thereafter, Sowore was said to have been picked up at his apartment in the early hours of Saturday.
Before his alleged arrest by DSS operatives, Swore had launched a #RevolutionNow campaign on Twitter with series of tweets mobilising Nigerians for a protest march against bad governance in Nigeria, which is to start from Surulere in Lagos, on Monday.
Efforts by Tribune Online to speak with the spokesperson of DSS, Dr Peter Afunaya, on the matter proved abortive, as all telephone calls and enquiries to him were unanswered as of the press time.
However, a senior security official who spoke with the Tribune Online on the background, said Sowore was actually arrested for questioning over a planned nationwide civil unrest being organised by a faceless organisation under the umbrella of “Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria,” as he was believed to be its promoter.
The source further explained that Sowore’s arrest was also connected with his recent parley with the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, already declared wanted on criminal related offences by the state.
The source, however, clarified that Sowore’s purported arrest was a routine exercise to allow for interface as well as part of security measures in the country.