According to a media record, Nigerian dissident leader Simon Ekpa was the subject of a charge that was brought against him by Finnish prosecutors on Friday. The National Prosecution Authority of Finland announced in a speech that it had charged” a Finnish person” with a case involving “alleged public provocation to commit crimes with criminal intent and involvement in the activities of a criminal group” between 2021 and 2024. The allegations were connected to the suspect’s efforts to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an impartial state. The accused was identified as dissident chief Simon Ekpa, but the prosecution’s office did not identify him. However, Scandinavian public broadcaster YLE later identified him as Simon Ekpa. Eppa was detained in November, claiming to be in charge of the Biafra Republic’s exiled state. The accused remained in prison and denied the claims, according to the trial power. Ekpa is credited with being the leader of a group of the Aboriginal People of Biafra ( IPOB), which is promoting the liberation of the south of Nigeria, where a bloody civil war took place in the late 1960s. The two Finnish-Nigerian regional has also served on a public transportation commission in the area of Lahti, north of Helsinki, as a regional representative for Finland’s liberal National Coalition Party. Finnish authorities also requested that four additional people be remanded in custody on suspicion of financing Ekpa’s activities when Ekpa was detained. Due to the lack of evidence, the prosecutor decided to drop charges against four others in the case on Friday, according to the prosecution authority. In recent years, Eppa has been the subject of numerous AFP fact checks due to false claims and disinformation he has presented during his campaigning for independence.
