A court docket in Finland has sentenced a controversial chief of a Nigerian secessionist motion to 6 years in jail after convicting him of terrorism-related offences.
Simon Ekpa, a Finnish citizen of Nigerian origin, “tried to advertise the independence of the so-called Biafra area in south-eastern Nigeria by unlawful means”, in line with court docket paperwork made accessible to BBC Information Pidgin by his lawyer.
He additionally outfitted armed teams with weapons and explosives by means of his community of contacts, the Päijät-Häme District Court docket dominated, in a unanimous verdict handed down by a panel of three judges.
Ekpa, a former councillor in Finland’s Lahti metropolis, denied the fees.
Components of south-eastern Nigeria have been hit by instability for years due to the battle between a secessionist motion, the Indigenous Folks of Biafra (Ipob), and the safety forces.
It’s unclear whether or not Ekpa, who was additionally convicted of aggravated tax fraud, will enchantment in opposition to the ruling.
The court docket dominated that he had engaged in unlawful actions between August 2021 and November 2024, and had additionally used social media to incite the general public to commit crimes in Nigeria.
Ekpa, who had beforehand mentioned that he led a faction inside Ipob, was arrested at his dwelling in Finland in February 2023.
In 2022, a BBC investigation recognized him as one of many “media warriors” of Ipob, who had been allegedly utilizing social media to name for violence. He didn’t reply to BBC requests for remark on the time.
Ipob is banned in Nigeria, and its chief Nnamdi Kanu is being tried on terrorism fees within the West African state. He denies any wrongdoing.
The group was fashioned in 2012 as a peaceable motion, however launched an armed wing in south-eastern Nigeria in 2020, saying it was doing so to defend the Igbo ethnic group.
Nonetheless, its critics say it has unleashed violence that has prompted large struggling.
The Nigerian authorities had known as for Ekpa’s extradition, saying he ought to face justice within the West African state.
In March final yr, the Nigerian military mentioned Ekpa and 96 others had been needed for terrorism, violent extremism and secessionist threats.
Ipob needs the south-east, and a part of the Niger Delta, to be their impartial homeland, which they name Biafra.
The secessionist marketing campaign first gained impetus within the Sixties, when an Igbo military officer, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared the start of Biafra following killings of south-easterners in northern Nigeria.
However that try at secession ended after a bloody three-year battle that led to greater than one million deaths from combating, hunger and an absence of medical care.
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