The State Security Service, notorious for unprovoked intimidation and assassination of journalists and dissidents since the military era, has held another Nigerian journalist over yet undisclosed reasons at the airport in Lagos.

Lanre Arogundade said in a social media update on Thursday afternoon that he was detained by the secret police as he arrived in Lagos from Banjul, where he had gone to train some reporters on conflict coverage.

“I am being held or detained against my wish. I have just returned from Banjul where I went to train Gambian journalists on Conflict sensitive journalism,” Mr Arogundade said on Facebook at about 4:00 p.m. He recalled further that he had faced similar attacks from SSS agents in decades past.

Mr Arogundade, who has led the Lagos-based media rights think-tank IPC for several years, did not immediately express knowledge of why he was being held against his wish.

The SSS, which erstwhile military dictators established as a national security outfit for regime protection, has long been known to ambush journalists, political activists and dissidents across the nation’s airports.

A spokesman for the secret police did not immediately return a request for comment. But campaign for Mr Arogundade’s release has started gaining steam as words spread of the development.

Tufts University rights professor Chidi Odinkalu has condemned the SSS’ action on his social media handles and demanded Mr Arogundade’s immediate release.

Mr Arogundade has updated his Facebook wall with messages that he has been released.