By A District Court in Finland has sentenced Simon Ekpa, the self-styled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Government in Exile, to six years’ imprisonment for terrorism-related offences.
The court ruled that Ekpa was guilty of inciting terrorism and actively participating in the operations of a terrorist group.
Simon Ekpa
According to Finnish daily YLE, the judges found that Ekpa had exploited his “significant social media following” to inflame tensions in Nigeria’s South-East between August 2021 and November 2024.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel declared that Ekpa was a key figure in a militant separatist network pushing for the creation of a Biafra state. He was also found to have supplied weapons, explosives and ammunition “through his network of contacts in the region”, while encouraging followers on social media platform X to commit crimes in Nigeria.
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The court further convicted him of aggravated tax fraud and breaches of the Attorneys Act.
Ekpa was arrested by Finnish authorities on 21 November 2024 after an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) linked him to the promotion of violence and terrorist activity online, believed to have fuelled unrest in Nigeria’s South-East.
Following his arrest, the Päijät-Häme District Court ordered his detention on charges of “public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent”, with offences spanning August 2021 to November 2024. During the probe, the NBI also froze his assets, along with those of his associates and affiliated companies.
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