Finland based Nigeria-born Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Päijät-Häme district court in Finland for terrorism crimes.
According to reports on Monday, Ekpa was sentenced after he was found guilty of inciting terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
Finnish newspaper Yle reports that the court said Ekpa had used his “significant social media following” to stoke tensions in Nigeria’s South-East region between August 2021 and November 2024.
The three-member panel of judges, in a unanimous ruling, pointed out that Ekpa was an influential member of a militant separatist movement, adding that his goal was to actualise the carving out of a Biafra state from Nigeria.
Furthermore, the court stated that Ekpa had supplied certain groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition “through his network of contacts in the region, and he was also found to have encouraged his followers on social media platform X to commit crimes in Nigeria”.
Ekpa was also convicted of aggravated tax fraud and violating the provisions of the Attorneys Act.
