Sema Fonkem 01/09/2025

Secessionist activist of Nigeria’s illegitimate Biafra State, Simon Ekpa has been sentenced to six years in prison for terrorism related crimes by Finnish court.

Ekpa who has been living in Finland since 2007 was arrested in 2024 by authorities in Finland on accusations of inciting violence and spreading separatist propaganda via his X social media account.

During the trial that took place from May to June 2025, a three-judge court sitting found that Ekpa was an influential militant of the Biafra Separatists Movement who supplied members of the armed group with explosives and ammunition used to harm civilians and law enforcement officers.

“It is very important that peace is restored in Nigeria. We are tired of men like Simon Ekpa and Boko Haram who are causing the death our people. It is uncalled for and he must pay for his sins,” said Aristos Maduka a Nigerian trader based in Johannesburg South Africa.

Ekpa who was born in Ohaukwu community in Ebonyi State, South East region of Nigeria once served as as Chairman of the Igbo Union in Finland from 2015 to 2019. From 2017 to 2021, he held the position of Playground Board Chairman in the City of Lahti.

“The Biafra situation is heartaching. The government should have stopped it when Ojukwu started it in 1960. Nigerian government is incapable of solving any crisis, talkless of holding men like Simon accountable. Without the Finnish court he would be been outside recking havoc,” said Anthony Etim, Nigerian student of Politics and International Relations at University of Johannesburg.

The conviction which can be appealed is welcomed by many Nigerians around the globe.

“Wars may have been a thing of honour in the past, but now we live in a completely far-left predominant society where peace and love to citizens is highly relevant to leadership. Simon Ekpa and everyone else alike fail to understand this. Their politics is built on lies and hate against humanity. You can not kill the same people you want rule simply because they stand against some of your principles,” said Felix Okoye, a Nigeria tutor based in Durban, South Africa.

While Ekpa has been jailed in Finland, parts of South-Eastern Nigeria still face violent attacks from armed groups linked to Biafra and the government of Nigeria continues to call for his extradition.