The Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland has sentenced Simon Ekpa, a pro-Biafra agitator, to six years in prison after finding him guilty of terrorism-related offences.
In the ruling delivered on Monday, the court convicted Ekpa of inciting terrorism and participating in the operations of a terrorist organisation.
According to Yle, a Finnish news outlet, the court found that Ekpa used his “significant social media following” to incite unrest in Nigeria’s South-East region between August 2021 and November 2024.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member judicial panel determined that Ekpa held a key position within a militant separatist group seeking to establish an independent Biafra state from Nigeria.
The court also found that Ekpa had supplied weapons, explosives, and ammunition to certain groups “through his network of contacts in the region,” and had encouraged criminal acts via posts on the social media platform X.
In addition to the terrorism charges, Ekpa was also convicted of aggravated tax fraud and for breaching the provisions of the Attorneys Act.
