The Finnish government said on Tuesday that it has started acting on the complaint by the Nigerian government against a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, Simon Ekpa, accused of leading brutal pro-Biafra secessionist campaigns in Nigeria’s South-east region......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Elina Valtonen, said in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, during a press conference she addressed alongside her Nordic counterparts, that Mr Ekpa’s case is now before Finnish courts.
“We have taken this up and discussed this with the Nigerian authorities… and the entire process is within our judicial system,” Ms Valtomen said, informing the gathering that the issue came up during a meeting with Nigerian government officials on Tuesday.
She did not provide details of the legal process.
However, for years, the Nigerian government has demanded drastic actions from the Finnish government and the European Union to stop Mr Ekpa’s fiery social media activities fuelling killings and instability in Nigeria’s South-east region.
Ms Valtomen and her Nordic counterparts arrived in Nigeria on Monday to deliberate on peace and security and to promote trade and investment cooperation between their countries and Nigeria.
Others with her on the first-of-its-kind group visit of Nordic countries’ top officials are the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Tobias Billström; the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, the State Secretary for International Development of Norway, Bjørg Sandkjær, and the Under Secretary for Foreign Policy, Denmark, Ms Eva Marie Frida Barløse.
The Nordic ministers said they met with the Nigerian government and officials of the West African regional body, ECOWAS, on Tuesday.
According to them, issues of security, economic cooperation, education, trade and investments, and the rule of law, among other topics of shared interests, came up in the deliberation with the Nigerian government.
Mr Ekpa’s case, which has strained the Finnish government’s diplomatic relationship with the Nigerian government, was also discussed, according to Ms Valtomen, who avoided mentioning the name of the Nigerian-Finnish citizen.
Despite not explicitly mentioning Mr Ekpa’s name, her description of the case pointed unmistakably to Mr Ekpa, whose matter has created a fault line in the Nigeria-Finland diplomatic relationship.
The matter has put Finland in a problematic situation of having to navigate the blurry line between Mr Ekpa’s rights to freedom of expression and the criminality of his inciteful social media activities leading to killings and other forms of violence in Nigeria’s South-east.
Mr Ekpa, self-styled ‘Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government in-Exile’, has claimed responsibility for attacks on Nigerian security agents and anyone suspected of harbouring sympathy for Nigeria.
He gloats over such attacks as reprisals for what he describes as the terror Nigeria’s security forces unleash on “Biafra territory”.
From his abode in Finland, Mr Ekpa pushes for extreme measures to actualise the secession of Nigeria’s South-east region and parts of neighbouring states as a sovereign Biafra nation, the agitation that prompted Nigeria’s Civil War between 1967 and 1970.
His methods include the brutal enforcement of an illegal stay-at-home order on Mondays in the region, in addition to attacks on federal government institutions within the reach of brutal enforcers. Experts have yet to come to terms with the full scale of the adverse economic impact of the stay-at-home order complied with by citizens out of fear of attacks.
Mr Ekpa has broken with the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, over the best approach to actualising their shared goal of a sovereign Biafra.