The online medium, Sahara Reporters, has released a footage showing how its publisher, Omoyele Sowore, was arrested and dragged out of his house Saturday morning.
Mr Sowore was arrested by the State Security Service ahead of the nationwide protest expected to start on Monday, in 21 cities.
Despite Mr Sowore’s arrest, the organisers had vowed to go on with the demonstration seeking decisive solutions to Nigeria’s security, economic, educational and healthcare failings.
Mr Sowore’s arrest has been condemned by prominent Nigerians including Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana and Mike Ozekhome.
The presidency accused those defending his arrest of blackmail.
Reports how security agents believed to be personnel of the SSS arrested Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of the news website and took him into custody.
The SSS on Sunday confirmed that its operatives took Mr Sowore into custody.
Why we arrested Sowore- SSS
The SSS spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said Mr Sowore was being held because he called for a revolution in Nigeria.
Mr Sowore and other organisers of ‘RevolutionNow’ movement have condemned federal authorities for lying against them that the protest, scheduled to begin on August 5, would be violent.
Mr Sowore was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) during the 2019 general elections.
He was also the leader of #Take It Back, a political movement which says it wants to rescue Nigeria from corruption and misgovernance.
Mr Sowore’s activism began while he was a student of geography at the University of Lagos. He later led the Student Union in that university.
After his youth service, the activist moved to New York for a graduate degree at Columbia University.
In 2005, he established SaharaReporters with which he has become a consistent thorn in the side of Nigerian authorities.
In 2018, he formally joined partisan politics, forming the African Action Congress on which platform he sought Nigeria’s number one office.
After he lost that election, Mr Sowore vowed to remain consistent in holding the Muhammadu Buhari government accountable.
