The Department of State Services about 10:30p.m on Tuesday released detained Tony Ezimakor, the Abuja Bureau Chief of Independent Newspapers.
Ezimakor was arrested on Wednesday by DSS over a publication on the payment of about $2 million ransom to Boko Haram for the release of 82 abducted Chibok girls and how it has turned into a business venture.
Apparently embarrassed by the publication, the DSS invited and detained Ezimakor after harassing staff of Independent Newspapers at the Lagos office.
The DSS had insisted that he disclose sources of his information as a condition for his release.
But Independent Newspapers had asked the DSS to go to court if it felt aggrieved with the publication.
On Friday, operatives of the agency stormed his residence and took away his laptop, personal and official documents, among other things, after turning his flat at Tundun Wada Extension of the Federal Housing, Lugbe, Abuja inside out.
The civil society organisation, OURMUMUDONDO Movement, led by Charles Oputa, a.k.a. Charly Boy, and other rights groups, had vowed to occupy the headquarters of Department of State Services in Maitama on Wednesday (today).
Before his release on Tuesday night, constitutional lawyers in the country joined the Nigeria Union of Journalists, civil society organisations and other institutions and individuals to demand the unconditional release of Ezimakor.