Finland charges Simon Ekpa with inciting terrorism.

Finnish authorities charged a man with inciting terrorism online on Friday, naming him as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa, according to media reports.

Finland’s National Prosecution Authority announced 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.”

It went on to say that the alleged crimes took place in the city of Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and were related to the suspect’s efforts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent state.

The prosecutor did not identify the accused, but Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as separatist leader Simon Ekpa.

Ekpa, who claims to be the leader of the Biafra Republic’s government in exile, was apprehended in November.

According to the prosecution, the accused remains in detention and has disputed the charges.

Ekpa is a self-proclaimed leader of a section of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that advocates for the independence of Nigeria’s southeast, which was the site of a deadly civil war in the late 1960s.

The dual Finnish-Nigerian national has also served as a local representative for Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in Lahti, north of Helsinki, where he was a member of the public transport committee.

When Ekpa was arrested, Finnish authorities demanded that four other people be held in custody on suspicion of financing Ekpa’s activities.

On Friday, the prosecution authority announced that the prosecutor had decided to drop charges against four others in the case due to a lack of evidence.

Ekpa has recently been the target of multiple fact-checks by the AFP due to misleading claims and disinformation made throughout his independence campaign.

AFP