Finnish prosecutors announced on Friday that they have charged a man with inciting terrorism online, identified by media reports as Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa.
The National Prosecution Authority of Finland stated it had charged “a Finnish individual” with suspected public incitement to commit crimes with terrorist intent and participation in a terrorist group’s activities.
The alleged offences occurred in Lahti between 2021 and 2024 and are linked to the suspect’s campaign to establish Nigeria’s Biafra region as an independent state.
Though the prosecution did not name the accused, Finnish public broadcaster YLE identified him as Simon Ekpa, who claims to lead the Biafra Republic government in exile. Ekpa was detained in November.
The accused remains in custody and denies all charges.
Ekpa is a self-proclaimed leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which advocates for independence of Nigeria’s southeast—a region that experienced a devastating civil war in the late 1960s.
A dual Finnish-Nigerian national, Ekpa has also served as a local representative for Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party in Lahti, where he sat on a public transport committee.
Alongside Ekpa’s arrest, Finnish authorities sought custody for four others suspected of financing his activities. However, on Friday, prosecutors dropped charges against these four due to insufficient evidence.
Ekpa has been frequently fact-checked by AFP in recent years for spreading false claims and disinformation related to his independence movement campaigning.
