₦airaland Forum

Finnish prosecutors on Friday said they had charged a man with inciting terrorism online who a media report identified as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa.
Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said in a statement that it had charged “a Finnish individual in a case involving suspected public incitement to commit crimes with terrorist intent and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.”

It added that the alleged crimes had been committed in the city of Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and were related to the suspect’s efforts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent state.

The prosecution authority did not name the accused but Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as separatist leader Simon Ekpa.

Ekpa — who claims to lead the Biafra Republic’s government in exile — was detained in November.

According to the prosecution authority, the accused remained in custody and denied the charges.

Ekpa is known as a self-proclaimed leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which is pushing for the independence of Nigeria’s southeast, where a bloody civil war was fought in the late 1960s.

The dual Finnish-Nigerian national has also been a local representative for Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in the city of Lahti, north of Helsinki, where he has served on a public transport committee.

When Ekpa was arrested, Finnish authorities also requested that four other people be remanded in custody on suspicion of financing Ekpa’s activities.

On Friday, the prosecution authority said the prosecutor had decided to drop charges against four others in the case due to a lack of evidence.

Ekpa has been the subject of several of AFP’s fact checks in recent years over false claims and disinformation he has made in independence campaigning.

Sharpsharp00123:
Na dem Dey call others coward but na dem go first japa when kasala burst.

Imagine a whole prime minister calling himself content creator

dominique:
Good. If he can't be extradited to Nigeria for prosecution, he should be prosecuted over there in Finland. You can't be inciting violence from thousands of miles away and expect to get away with it

gidgiddy:
Now watch how all the APC frauds, one Nigerianists and unity beggars will full here to talk about Simon Ekpa as if the care about Nigeria

If this thread had been armed bandits killing 50, none of them would even remember anything about terrorism to comment

ElSudani:
He is not going to serve a long term if convicted. Probably a first time offender, he will get a slap on the wrist.
Please send him to his domain in Nigeria. After all, he is the Prime Minister of Biafra.

WizardOfNG:
Oga, forget the laughing emojis. You are in severe pain and every Nairalander knows that. Another one of your "innocent" kinsmen, you insisted is a saint, now bites the dust.. Lol

gidgiddy:
Now watch how all the APC frauds, 'one Nigerianists' and unity beggars will full here to talk about Simon Ekpa, as if they care about Nigeria

If this thread had been armed bandits killing 50 in Southern Kaduna, none of them would even remember anything about terrorism to comment here