Finnish prosecutors revealed on Friday that Simon Ekpa, a controversial figure linked to Nigeria’s separatist movement, now faces criminal charges for allegedly leveraging digital channels to encourage acts of terrorism.
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.”
Prosecutors stated that the alleged offenses, which took place in the city of Lahti over a span of three years from 2021 to 2024, were connected to attempts by the suspect to champion the secession of Nigeria’s Biafra region.
Read also: Tension In Southeast As Trial Of Nnamdi Kanu Resumes
While Finnish authorities did not formally release the suspect’s name, national broadcaster YLE identified him as Simon Ekpa, a separatist figure who claims leadership of a self-declared Biafran government-in-exile. Ekpa was taken into custody in November and, according to officials, remains detained while continuing to contest the charges leveled against him.
Widely recognized as a factional leader within the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) — the movement advocating for an independent Biafran state in southeastern Nigeria, the site of a devastating civil war in the late 1960s — Ekpa holds dual citizenship of Finland and Nigeria. He has also held a local political role, previously serving on Lahti’s public transport committee as a representative of Finland’s center-right National Coalition Party.
Following his arrest, Finnish authorities sought to detain four additional individuals suspected of funding his activities. However, prosecutors announced on Friday that those charges had been dismissed due to insufficient evidence.