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Finnish prosecutors announced on Friday that they have charged an individual with online incitement to terrorism, identified by media reports as Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader.
The National Prosecution Authority of Finland stated that a Finnish citizen was charged in connection with suspected public incitement to commit crimes with terrorist intent and for participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
The alleged offenses took place in Lahti from 2021 to 2024 and were associated with the suspect’s attempts to establish the Biafra region of Nigeria as an independent nation.
Although the prosecution did not disclose the name of the accused, Finnish public broadcaster YLE reported it to be Simon Ekpa.
Ekpa, who claims to lead the Biafra Republic's government in exile, was arrested in November.
The prosecution indicated that he remains in custody and has denied the charges.
Ekpa is recognized as a self-declared leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), advocating for the independence of Nigeria’s southeastern region, a site of a devastating civil war that occurred in the late 1960s.
He holds dual Finnish-Nigerian citizenship and has previously served as a local representative for Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in Lahti, where he was a member of a public transport committee.
Upon Ekpa's arrest, Finnish authorities also sought to detain four other individuals suspected of funding his activities. However, on Friday, the prosecution announced that it had decided to drop charges against these four due to insufficient evidence.
In recent years, Ekpa has been the focus of multiple fact-checks by AFP for misleading statements and misinformation related to his campaign for independence.
