On Friday, Finnish prosecutors announced that a man had been charged with inciting terrorism online, identified by media reports as Simon Ekpa, a leader of the Nigerian separatist movement.
The National Prosecution Authority of Finland stated that a Finnish citizen was charged with public incitement to commit terrorist crimes and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. These alleged offenses took place in Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and were connected to the suspect’s push for the independence of Nigeria’s Biafra region.
Although the prosecution did not disclose the name of the accused, the Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as Ekpa.
Ekpa, who asserts that he leads the Biafra Republic’s government in exile, was arrested in November. According to the prosecution authority, he is currently in custody and has denied the allegations against him.
He is recognized as a self-proclaimed leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which advocates for the independence of Nigeria’s southeastern region, where a devastating civil war occurred in the late 1960s.
A dual citizen of Finland and Nigeria, Ekpa has also served as a local representative for Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in Lahti, where he participated in a public transport committee.
At the time of his arrest, Finnish authorities sought to detain four others on suspicion of financing Ekpa’s activities. However, on Friday, the prosecution stated that charges against these four individuals were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
In recent years, Ekpa has been the focus of several fact-checks by AFP due to false claims and disinformation related to his independence campaigning.
