Finnish authorities have arrested pro-Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, over “public exhortation to an offence, committed with terrorist intent”
The Finish National Bureau of Investigation said it has requested that Ekpa be remanded on suspicion of public exhortation for an offence, committed with terrorist intent.
Ekpa is charged alongside four other persons on suspicion of financing a terrorist offence, according to a statement by the Finnish police on Thursday.
Though the police statement did not mention Ekpa’s name, local Finnish news website Helsingin Sonamat listed his name in its report of the case.
The police statement noted that “the requests for remand are related to a criminal investigation in which a dual citizen of Finland and Nigeria born in the 1980s is suspected of public exhortation to an offence, committed with terrorist intent.
“The police suspect that the man has furthered his efforts from Finland in such a way that has resulted in violence against civilians and public authorities and in other crimes in South-East Nigeria.
“He has carried out this activity by campaigning, for example, on his social media channels, says Head of Investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Otto Hiltunen of the National Bureau of Investigation.”
It added that the other four persons are suspected of financing Ekpa’s terrorism activity and confirmed that the five suspects have been apprehended early this week.
The Finnish police said it carried out international cooperation during the criminal investigation.
It is not the first time Ekpa has been arrested in Finland. In February 2023, days before the presidential and national assembly elections, Ekpa was arrested in Finland where he resides after threatening that the elections would not be held in the South-East.
Ekpa was arrested by the police in his residence in the Lahti area of the country, a Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat had reported.
The separatist repeatedly declared that there would be no elections in the Southeast region of the country and insisted on the observance of a sit-at-home every Monday in the area to protest the detention of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.
IPOB, however, distanced itself from the Finland-based Ekpa who was reportedly billed for an interview before his arrest.
He was later released and has since been very active on social media where he posts his pro-Biafran messages.
In August, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, had said that the Finnish government was taking action against Ekpa.
She disclosed this in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, during a press conference she addressed alongside her Nordic counterparts.
According to her, the case of Ekpa whose activities were reported to the Finnish government by the Nigerian government, is now before Finnish courts.
Self-proclaimed Biafra Prime Minister Ekpa has been a strong proponent of sit-at-home directives in the South Eastern states despite the mainstream leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) suspending the exercise.