On November 21, 2024, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested Simon Njoku Ekpa, a Finnish-Nigerian citizen and top member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group outlawed in Nigeria and designated a terrorist organisation. Ekpa, the self-declared prime minister of the Biafra Republic Government-in-Exile (BRGIE) and four others were arrested in Päijät-Häme regional capital, Lahti, on suspicion of “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media” and accusation of contributing “to violence and crimes against civilians in South-eastern Nigeria”.
The arrest and remand of Ekpa have been long overdue. From the comfort of his lavishly furnished home in Lahti, he had issued orders and threats against Nigerian military and security forces and personnel and even civilians. And the Biafra separatist leader had repeatedly claimed responsibility for various attacks and killings in the region.
Originally a member of the Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB, he was announced as the director of the group’s pirate radio channel, Radio Biafra, after Kanu’s arrest and detention in 2021. But shortly after, IPOB announced his disengagement over alleged refusal to sign rules of engagement guiding the operation of the radio station, which usually spews inciting messages and propaganda against the Nigerian government and “perceived enemies.”
Irked by his removal, Ekpa floated his inciting online station – Enter Biafra Freedom Awareness Channel, and formed Autopilot, a faction of IPOB. He later declared himself the prime minister of BRGIE and established the Biafra Liberation Army (BLA), a group of gunmen linked to the attacks and killings in the South East. The gunmen have been enforcing sit-at-home orders which have caused widespread disruption, including entrenching a climate of violence and fear with civilians and businesses caught in the crossfire. This caused a split in the separatist movement with the IPOB aligned with Kanu distancing itself from Ekpa’s faction, criticising his violent methods.
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While there is a sigh of relief over the arrest of Ekpa, this is not Nigeria’s first attempt to have him arrested and reined in for his excesses. He was first arrested in February 2023 over his incessant calls for sit-at-home order and boycott of the 2023 general elections in the region.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned the Finnish Ambassador, urging Finland to cooperate in addressing Ekpa’s threats. He was then arrested over suspicion of fundraising fraud and his repeated justification of the use of violence. But he was released after a brief interrogation.
Now that Ekpa is again under custody, we at Daily Trust call on the Finnish authorities to help bring him to justice as IPOB and the gunmen under him have already crossed the line between separatist agitation and criminality. He and his group have breached the right of the people of the region to personal liberty and freedom of movement contrary to Sections 35(1) & 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by prohibiting them from their legitimate pursuits on their imposed sit-at-home days, through the use of intimidation, killings, kidnappings and destruction of private and public property.
We also call on the Nigerian government to collaborate fully with the Finnish authorities to ensure that Ekpa does not escape justice in Finland. The collaboration should include ensuring full scrutiny and accountability of his sponsors across the nations of the world, and availing the Finnish authorities with a chronicle of his activities, directives and vindictiveness which aided the insecurity in the region.
Daily Trust also calls on federal government to explore the option of extraditing him to Nigeria to answer for war crimes against his home country and its people. After all, both Nigeria and Finland are signatories to the Rome Statute of 1/7/1998 making it “The duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes”.
Moreover, the Finnish authorities should realise that Ekpa’s case has drawn significant international attention, especially by Nigeria’s over 230 million population. Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) and other relevant agencies should be proactive and not take a passing interest in the ongoing investigations and legal proceedings. All diplomatic and back-end channels must be activated to ensure that justice is gotten for Nigerians who have suffered from Ekpa’s flippancy and blood-thirsty instincts.
It is not just that he has enforced and justified killings and kidnappings, during lockdowns, residents who venture outside their homes faced the certainty of violent attacks, leaving their sick without medical care, children out of school and forcing them to shut their businesses. He has pushed the region into clear economic decline as his gunmen have ruined businesses and shrunk the economic space, bringing suffering to traders, shop owners, artisans, craftsmen, industrialists, wholesalers and retailers of a motley of merchandise.
It is time for the federal, state and local governments to work together and institute measures that would clear the South East of hoodlums and criminals that have launched a spate of killings and kidnapping of innocent civilians, military and police personnel and summarily executing some of them in the streets.
More importantly, we urge the federal government to use the opportunity of Ekpa’s arrest to resolve the issue of Kanu’s detention, IPOB and insecurity in the South East towards the restoration of peace and security in the region. After all, in 2012, before IPOB agitation started, the South East was considered the safest of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
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