The Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland has sentenced Simon Ekpa, a Finnish-Nigerian activist, to six years in prison on terrorism-related charges, BBC reports.
The court found Ekpa guilty of inciting terrorism in Nigeria and promoting the secession of the Biafra region through unlawful means between 2021 and 2024. He also faced charges of aggravated tax fraud and violations of the Lawyers Act.
Ekpa, who styles himself as the “Prime Minister” of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, was accused of participating in a terrorist organisation and publicly inciting crimes for terrorist purposes.
Prosecutors argued that his online activities, coordinated from Finland, contributed to acts of violence in Nigeria.
“We have a great deal of evidence regarding this individual’s online activity and communications,” state prosecutor Sampsa Hakala said.
Ekpa’s trial began in May 2024 after Finnish authorities, working with Nigerian counterparts, investigated his role in the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which Nigeria proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 2017.
Though Finnish prosecutors did not initially name him, public broadcaster YLE confirmed Ekpa as the suspect. He was arrested in November 2024 and has remained in custody, denying all charges.
The case also examined possible financial support for his activities. Four people were arrested on suspicion of funding his operations, but prosecutors later dropped the charges due to lack of evidence.
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IPOB, the separatist group Ekpa is linked to, has long demanded independence for Nigeria’s southeast, the epicentre of the 1967–1970 civil war that claimed more than a million lives.
