Finnish prosecutors on Friday announced that they had charged a man with inciting terrorism online, whom a media outlet identified as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa.
Finland’s National Prosecution Authority stated 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 statement said the suspected offenses occurred in Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and were connected to the accused’s attempts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent country.
Although the prosecution authority did not reveal the accused’s identity, Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as separatist leader Simon Ekpa.
Ekpa, who asserts that he leads the Biafra Republic’s government in exile, was taken into custody in November.
The prosecution authority stated that the accused is still being held and has denied the allegations.
Ekpa is recognized as a self-declared leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which advocates for the independence of southeastern Nigeria, where a violent civil war took place in the late 1960s.
The Finnish-Nigerian citizen has also served as a representative for Finland’s National Coalition Party in the city of Lahti, north of Helsinki, where he was a member of a public transport committee.
Following Ekpa’s arrest, Finnish authorities also sought the detention of four additional individuals suspected of providing financial support for his activities.
On Friday, the prosecution authority reported that the prosecutor had dropped the charges against the four due to insufficient evidence.
Ekpa has been the subject of numerous AFP fact checks in recent years over misleading claims and disinformation he has spread in support of Biafra’s independence.
What you should know
Simon Ekpa, a dual Finnish-Nigerian national and self-proclaimed Biafran leader, has been charged in Finland for allegedly inciting terrorism and participating in terrorist group activities linked to Biafra’s independence drive.
While he remains in custody denying the charges, Finnish prosecutors have dropped similar charges against four others for lack of evidence.
ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM VERILY NEWS
