Simon Ekpa, a prominent pro-Biafra agitator, has been sentenced to six years in prison by thePäijät-Häme district court in Finland for terrorism offences. The ruling, delivered on a Monday, found Ekpa guilty of inciting terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. According to Finnish media outlet Yle, the court determined that Ekpa leveraged his significant social media following, particularly on platform X, to escalate tensions and instigate violence in Nigeria's South-East region between August 2021 and November 2024.

The three-member judicial panel unanimously identified Ekpa as an influential member of a militant separatist movement, whose primary objective was to establish an independent Biafra state from Nigeria. Beyond online incitement, the court also found that Ekpa had facilitated the supply of weapons, explosives, and ammunition to various groups through his network of contacts in the region. He was further convicted of aggravated tax fraud and violating the provisions of the Attorneys Act, based on evidence presented by prosecutors.

Photo Credit: BBC News

Ekpa's background reveals his rise to prominence following the extradition of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), from Kenya in June 2021. Initially, Ekpa was appointed as the lead broadcaster for Radio Biafra. However, his tenure was short-lived, as IPOB dismissed him weeks later for his refusal to adhere to the station's rules of engagement. This disagreement led to a strained relationship between Ekpa and IPOB, prompting him to establish his own splinter secessionist group.

Ekpa, who lives in Finland, heads the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria, which has been allegedly responsible for killings and abductions of hundreds of people in Nigeria’s southeastern region.

Photo Credit: Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria

The Finnish court said Simon Ekpa was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the activities of a terrorist group, public incitement to commit a crime for terrorist purposes, aggravated tax fraud and violating the provisions of the Lawyers Act. For years, IPOB has sought to reignite a failed secession push by former Biafra. Biafra was a short-lived country that comprised Nigeria’s southeastern states, including future oil-producing areas. The Nigerian military government rejected the secession, which led to a civil war between 1967 and 1970, in which at least 3 million people died.

The secessionist campaign first gained impetus in the 1960s, when an Igbo army officer, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared the birth of Biafra following killings of south-easterners in northern Nigeria. But that attempt at secession ended after a bloody three-year conflict that led to more than a million deaths from fighting, starvation and a lack of medical care.