On Monday, the P\u00e4ij\u00e4t-H\u00e4me District Court sentenced Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian-born Finnish citizen, to six years in prison for terrorism-related offenses and other crimes.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old former municipal politician from Lahti was found guilty of several charges, including involvement with a terrorist organization, incitement to commit terrorist acts, aggravated tax fraud, and violations of the Lawyers Act.<\/p>\n
The court also ordered Ekpa to remain in custody.<\/p>\n
According to the verdict, between August 2021 and November 2024, Ekpa sought to promote the independence of the Biafra region in southeastern Nigeria through illegal activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used social media to gain political influence and exploited internal conflicts within a major separatist movement in Nigeria to play a leading role,\u201d the court statement said, as reported by BBC News Pidgin.<\/p>\n
Ekpa denied all charges.<\/p>\n
The court found that Ekpa played a key role in founding and organizing the separatist movement, collaborating with others to strengthen its structure.<\/p>\n
During the trial, it emerged that armed groups affiliated with the movement were formed and classified as terrorist organizations by the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cEkpa supplied these groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition through his network. He also encouraged his followers on X (formerly Twitter) to commit crimes in Nigeria,\u201d the court added.<\/p>\n
The trial spanned 12 sessions from May 30 to June 25, 2025, with a three-judge panel delivering a unanimous verdict.<\/p>\n
Finnish authorities arrested Ekpa in December 2024 on terrorism-related charges.<\/p>\n
He was detained on suspicion of publicly inciting crimes with terrorist intent, allegedly committed primarily in Lahti between August 2021 and November 2024.<\/p>\n
Four other men were initially arrested by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation but were later released as charges against them were dropped due to lack of evidence.<\/p>\n
Ekpa, who formerly served as a municipal councillor in Lahti, is known for his controversial involvement in the Biafran separatist movement.<\/p>\n
His online broadcasts and social media presence have attracted both support and criticism within Nigeria and abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Monday, the P\u00e4ij\u00e4t-H\u00e4me District Court sentenced Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian-born Finnish citizen, to six years in prison for terrorism-related offenses and other crimes. The 40-year-old former municipal politician from Lahti was found guilty of several charges, including involvement with a terrorist organization, incitement to commit terrorist acts, aggravated tax fraud, and violations of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5807,7],"tags":[5590,5591,2660],"class_list":["post-94950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime-and-violence","category-news","tag-ekpa","tag-finland","tag-jail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}