Finland charges Simon Ekpa with inciting terrorism

Finnish prosecutors have charged a man with inciting terrorism online, a suspect identified by local media as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa.

In a statement released on Friday, Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said it had charged a Finnish individual with public incitement to commit crimes with terrorist intent and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group.

The alleged offences, committed in the city of Lahti between 2021 and 2024, were linked to efforts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent state. The authority did not publicly name the accused, but Finnish public broadcaster YLE confirmed the individual as Ekpa.

Ekpa, who describes himself as the leader of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, was detained in November 2024. He remains in custody and has denied all charges, according to the prosecution authority.

The dual Finnish-Nigerian citizen is known for his affiliation with a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group agitating for the independence of Nigeria’s southeast, a region that experienced a devastating civil war between 1967 and 1970. Ekpa has also served as a local representative of Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in Lahti, where he held a position on the city’s public transport committee.

At the time of Ekpa’s arrest, Finnish authorities requested that four other individuals be remanded on suspicion of financing his activities. However, on Friday, prosecutors announced that charges against the four had been dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Ekpa has been the subject of multiple fact-checks by Agence France-Presse (AFP) for spreading false information in support of Biafra independence campaigns.