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The controversial pro-Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, has been arrested by the Finnish Central Criminal Police.
Mr Ekpa is the leader of Autopilot, a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
IPOB is a group leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra which it wants carved out from the south-east and some parts of south-south Nigeria.
The Biafra agitator was arrested alongside four others on Thursday on suspicion of terrorist activities, a Finnish newspaper reported.
The Finnish police said they suspect that Mr Ekpa “has contributed to violence and crimes against civilians in South-eastern Nigeria.”
The report said discussion for possible imprisonment of the pro-Biafra agitator would be discussed on Thursday (today), in the District Court of Päijät-Häme.
“The police suspect that the man (Ekpa) has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians and authorities as well as other crimes in the region of South-eastern Nigeria.
“The man has carried out this activity, among other things, on his social media channels,” the Head of the investigation, Crime Commissioner, Otto Hiltunen of the Central Criminal Police, was quoted as saying.
Mr Ekpa, a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, was said to have been indicted for financing terrorism alongside the four other suspects.
The police suspect that the Biafra agitator committed the crime of collecting money in violation of the Finnish Money Collection Act.
The Finnish police said he allegedly committed the crimes between 23 August 2021 and 18 November 2024 in Lahti, a town in Finland.
The other four suspects are persons with a foreign background born in the 1970s or 1960s, according to the report.
They were said to have committed the crime in August 2022, also in Lahti.
Aside from Mr Ekpa, the identities of the four suspects were not provided.
“All five suspects were arrested during the first week. The police say that during the preliminary investigation, they had international cooperation,” the report said.
The report said the District Court of Päijät-Häme, on Thursday, ordered that Mr Ekpa be imprisoned “with probable cause on suspicion of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent.”
But it is not clear, for now, if the pro-Biafra agitator has been imprisoned.
In February 2023, Finnish authorities arrested Mr Ekpa, shortly after he threatened to disrupt Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections.
PREMIUM TIMES later learnt that he was arrested for collecting money for alleged terrorism activities.
The pro-Biafra agitator was later released shortly after being questioned by Finnish police.
Born 21 March 1985, Mr Ekpa hails from Ngbo, a community in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, south-east Nigeria.
The Biafra agitator, who is based in Finland, has been linked to growing insecurity in south-east Nigeria.
He has continued to issue sit-at-home orders in the region during which residents who step out are sometimes killed or attacked by gunmen enforcing the illegal order.
Mr Ekpa has been using his social media pages, mainly X, to push a secessionist agenda, issue illegal orders, disseminate fake news, and solicit funds for suspected terrorist activities.
On 3 July 2023, for instance, he posted via his verified X handle that 50 men and 50 women were needed to fund the Biafra movement with $10,000 monthly for the next six months, with the promise that this would lead to the restoration of Biafra by the end of 2023.
The Nigerian government had made unsuccessful and repeated efforts to extradite Mr Ekpa to Nigeria to face prosecution.
In February 2023, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Leena Pylvanainen, over threat by Mr Ekpa to disrupt the country’s 2023 general elections.
Geoffrey Onyeama, then Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, had met with the Finnish ambassador and asked for the Finnish government’s cooperation to arrest Mr Ekpa over threats to disrupt the exercise.
