Finnish prosecutors on Friday said they had charged a man identified as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa with inciting online terrorism, and he remained in custody.
Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said in a statement that it had charged “a Finnish individual in a case involving suspected public incitement to commit crimes with terrorist intent and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.”
It added that the alleged crimes had been committed in the city of Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and were related to the suspect’s efforts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent state.
The prosecution authority did not name the accused, but Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as separatist leader Simon Ekpa.
Ekpa is known as the self-proclaimed leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which has continued to violently oppose the government of Nigeria and incite his followers to the killings of anyone who does not align with their doctrine in Nigeria’s southeast.
When Ekpa was arrested, Finnish authorities also requested that four other people be remanded in custody on suspicion of financing Ekpa’s activities.
In recent years, Ekpa has been the subject of several fact checks regarding false claims and disinformation he has made in his independent campaigning.