FG hails Simon Ekpa’s 6-Yr jail term as landmark win against terrorism

The Federal Government has described the sentencing of pro-Biafra agitator Simon Ekpa as a significant step forward in Nigeria’s campaign against terrorism.

On Monday, the Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland handed Ekpa a six-year prison term after finding him guilty of inciting terrorist acts and associating with a terrorist group.

The court established that Ekpa leveraged his vast social media following to incite violence and destabilisation across Nigeria’s South-East region between August 2021 and November 2024.

Reacting in a statement posted on X, Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, welcomed the ruling, calling it a “major victory in the war against terror” in the country.

“We welcome the news of Simon Ekpa’s conviction by a Finnish court for terrorism-related crimes, and his sentencing to six years in prison,” he said.

“A major victory for the Nigerian people in the collective fight against terror.”

Ekpa, a self-proclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu — the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) — spearheaded the controversial sit-at-home protests in the South-East. The campaign’s violent enforcement has left several civilians and security officers dead.

Following Kanu’s extradition from Kenya in June 2021, Ekpa briefly assumed the role of lead broadcaster at Radio Biafra. However, IPOB soon dismissed him for refusing to comply with the station’s code of conduct, a move that strained relations and led him to establish a breakaway faction.

Finnish authorities arrested Ekpa in November 2024, and he was later convicted for “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media.”

In March 2025, Nigeria formally listed him as a “terrorism financier.”

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