Simon Ekpa’s flippant and loquacious approach to rescuing the Igbo race from the iron claws of Nigerian government and its misrule lands him in six years sentence in faraway Finland
By Our Correspondent
The world over, freedom fighters exhibit certain characteristics such as being unwaveringly passionate, aggressive, tenacious, resilient perceptively rebellious and vocal. They have earned numerous derogatory sobriquets such as the madman, treasonable felon, rebel, terrorists and law breaker. Thus, almost all freedom fighters and agitators, both living and dead, have been regarded as being offensive, irritating, abusive, constituting nuisance, as well as a threat to public peace.
However, all through the ages, revolutionaries have pursued a common mission which remains their vocal contention against rash, oppressive and insensitive regimes which rule with iron claws. These have also pursued a common goal which is often to rescue their people from tyranny, oppression and obvious injustice.
Hence, freedom fighters are more often regarded by the ruling class as being injurious to the society due to their constant vocal preachings against oppression, whom the oppressors must hound until they have been silenced.
Mahatma (Mohandas) Gandhi was a central figure in India’s struggle for independence, he was known for pioneering the nonviolence resistance and civil disobedience movement that heralded India’s independence.
Nelson Mandela was an anti-apartheid revolutionary who was imprisoned for 27 years before he was freed and later became the first black President of South Africa.
Martin Luther King Jr., was a Baptist clergyman and leader of the American Civil Rights movement for the black race in the US in the 1960s who paid the ultimate price in his struggle to liberate black Americans from discrimination by the Whites. King Jr. had made the famous declaration that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
Authoring the famous and inspirational “American Declaration of Independence” message, Thomas Jefferson had penned, “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good governance”. The lack of the application of Jefferson’s philosophy by successive administrations in treating the Igbo of the South east has thrown up numerous Simon Ekpas of the South east extraction. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Igbo of the South east is hated, mistreated, segregated against, denied equal opportunities, marginalized, subdued and often massacred by the Nigerian military’s ‘Operation Python Dance’ in the country where they are forced to live like slaves.
The recent incarceration of Ekpa in faraway Finland, ostensibly orchestrated by the Nigerian government, has written his name boldly in the league of the world’s freedom fighters and revolutionaries.
A court in Finland sentenced the controversial leader of a Nigerian secessionist movement to six years in prison after convicting him of terrorism-related offences.
Ekpa, a Finnish citizen of Nigerian origin, “attempted to promote the independence of the so-called Biafra region in south-eastern Nigeria by illegal means”, according to court documents made available to BBC News Pidgin by his lawyer.
He also equipped armed groups with weapons and explosives through his network of contacts, the Päijät-Häme District Court ruled, in a unanimous verdict handed down by a panel of three judges.
A former Councilor in Finland’s Lahti city, Ekpa, however denied the charges.
Parts of the South eastern Nigeria have been engulfed by instability for many years because of the conflict between the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and the security forces.
It is unclear whether Ekpa, who was also convicted of aggravated tax fraud, will appeal against the ruling.
The court ruled that he had engaged in illegal activities between August 2021 and November 2024, and had also used social media to incite the public to commit crimes in Nigeria.
Ekpa, who had previously said that he led a faction within the IPOB, was arrested at his home in Finland in February 2023.
In 2022, a BBC investigation identified him as one of the “media warriors” of IPOB, who were allegedly using social media to call for violence. He did not respond to BBC requests for comment at the time.
IPOB is banned in Nigeria, and its leader Nnamdi Kanu is being tried on terrorism charges in the West African state. He denied any wrongdoing.
The Nigerian government had called for Ekpa’s extradition, saying he should face justice in the West African state.
In March last year, the Nigerian army said Ekpa and 96 others were wanted for terrorism, violent extremism and secessionist threats.
IPOB wants the South east, and part of the Niger Delta, to be their independent homeland, which they call Biafra.
On Friday, August 29, 2025, President Bola Tinubu in Abuja welcomed the intervention of the Finish government, with the arrest and detention of Simon Ekpa, saying the government will not tolerate actions and statements that could lead to divisiveness among citizens.
Tinubu spoke when he received the Letters of Credence from the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Sanna Selin, at the State House. He commended the Finnish authorities for the timely intervention that safeguarded the nation’s integrity and mitigated an action that threatened peaceful coexistence.
President Tinubu also received Letters of Credence from the Ambassador of the European Union, Mr Gautier Mignot, and the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Algeria, Hocine Mezoued.
He said, “I must thank you for your record on safeguarding human rights in our country with the trial of Simon Ekpa. Nigeria is indivisible. We have been through turbulent times, and we don’t want to promote terrorism.
“I am a child born into activism, but not divisiveness. We need cohesion and cooperation to bring about development. Our watchword is stability and cohesion to move the country forward.
“The National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, has informed me. I know what the rule of law means. The rule of law safeguards our democratic credentials, morals and values. We must respect the rule of law”.
At the moment, Ekpa has the right to challenge his incarceration in a higher court in Finland. But, in the event he chooses to serve the sentence, he will remain in the gulag for the agitation to liberate his kinsmen in the South east region of Nigeria just as Mandela chose to remain 27 years in jail in protest against maltreatments meted out to his black kinsmen in South Africa.
