The legal proceedings against Simon Ekpa, the self-proclaimed leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), are now underway in Finland.
He is being prosecuted for allegedly using online platforms to incite terrorist acts. 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.”
The charges allege that between 2021 and 2024, in Lahti, Finland, the suspect engaged in online activities aimed at promoting Biafra’s independence, which Finnish authorities consider incitement to terrorism.
Charges were dropped against four others suspected of financing Ekpa’s activities due to lack of evidence, while the main accused, arrested in November 2024, remained in custody and denied the charges, according to the prosecution authority.
Persecondnews reports that the prosecution did not name the accused, but Finnish broadcaster YLE identified him as Simon Ekpa, a Biafra separatist leader.
Ekpa, a Finnish-Nigerian dual national, served on Lahti’s public transport committee as a representative of Finland’s National Coalition Party.
The self-proclaimed leader of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile has claimed responsibility for violent attacks on Nigerian security agents and those suspected of sympathising with Nigeria, framing these actions as reprisals for the perceived terror inflicted by Nigerian security forces on ‘Biafra territory.’
From his base in Finland, Ekpa champions extreme measures to bring about the separation of Nigeria’s southeast region and parts of neighbouring states, seeking to create a sovereign Biafra nation, a quest that led to Nigeria’s Civil War between 1967 and 1970.
His modus operandi includes the brutal enforcement of an illegal stay-at-home order on Mondays across the region, in addition to attacks on federal government institutions within the reach of brutal enforcers.
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