The Finnish government said on Tuesday it has begun to act on the Nigerian government's complaint against a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, Simon Ekpa, accused of leading brutal pro-Biafra secessionist campaigns in Nigeria's southeastern region.
Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said in a joint press conference in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, that Ekpa's case is now before the Finnish courts.
“We have taken up this matter and discussed it with the Nigerian authorities… and the whole process is within our judicial system,” Valtomen said, telling the crowd that the issue came up during a meeting with Nigerian government officials on Tuesday.
He did not provide details of the legal process.
However, for years, the Nigerian government has been demanding drastic action from the Finnish government and the European Union to stop Ekpa's intense social media activities that fuel killings and instability in Nigeria's southeastern region.
Ms Valtomen and her Nordic counterparts arrived in Nigeria on Monday to discuss peace and security and promote trade and investment cooperation between their countries and Nigeria.
She is also joined on this first group visit of this kind by senior officials from the Nordic countries by 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 Undersecretary for Foreign Policy of Denmark, Eva Marie Frida Barløse.
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The Nordic ministers said they met with the Nigerian government and officials from West African regional body ECOWAS on Tuesday.
From left to right, Tobias Billström, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Eva Marie Frida Barløse, Undersecretary for Foreign Policy of Denmark, Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Ms Bjørg Sandkjær, State Secretary for International Development, Norway. Photo credit: Ademola Popoola.
According to them, the discussions with the Nigerian government raised issues of security, economic cooperation, education, trade and investment, and the rule of law, among other issues of shared interest.
The Ekpa case, which has strained the Finnish government's diplomatic relationship with the Nigerian government, was also discussed, according to Valtomen, who declined to mention the name of the Nigerian-Finnish citizen.
Despite not explicitly mentioning Mr. Ekpa's name, his description of the case pointed unequivocally to Mr. Ekpa, whose affair has created a rift in the diplomatic relationship between Nigeria and Finland.
The affair has put Finland in a difficult position as it has to navigate the blurry line between Mr Ekpa's rights to freedom of expression and the criminality of his inciting social media activities leading to murders and other forms of violence in south-east Nigeria.
The self-proclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra
Mr Ekpa, who calls himself the “Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Biafra in Exile”, has claimed responsibility for attacks on Nigerian security agents and anyone suspected of harbouring pro-Nigerian sympathies.
He gloats over these attacks as retaliation for what he describes as the terror unleashed by Nigerian security forces in “Biafran territory”.
From his residence in Finland, Mr. Ekpa is pushing for extreme measures to realize the secession of the southeastern region of Nigeria and parts of neighbouring states as a sovereign nation of Biafra, the upheaval that sparked the Nigerian Civil War between 1967 and 1970.
Journalists at the press conference with the Nordic Foreign Ministers, today at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. Photo credit: Ademola Popoola
Their methods include brutal enforcement of an illegal stay-at-home order on Mondays in the region, as well as attacks on federal government institutions within reach of the brutal enforcers. Experts have yet to fully understand the magnitude of the adverse economic impact of the stay-at-home order that citizens complied with out of fear of attacks.
Mr Ekpa has broken ties with the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, over the best approach to realising their shared goal of a sovereign Biafra.
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Mr Kanu, a British and Nigerian citizen, has been in continuous detention by Nigeria’s state police, the State Security Service (SSS), since June 2021. He was first arrested for his secessionist campaigns in 2015 and detained until he was granted bail in 2017. He was arrested again in Kenya in June 2021 and has been detained ever since. He faces felony charges of treason in the Federal High Court in Abuja for his separatist activities.
The Nigerian government has accused Finland and the European Union of protecting Ekpa in order to further destabilise the south-eastern region.
The rule of law will be respected
Ms Valtomen stressed on Tuesday that the principle of the rule of law will guide Finland's handling of the Ekpa case.
“Finland is strictly governed by the rule of law,” he said, adding that the issue was not a political question, but one that would be decided solely by Finnish courts.
She said: “It is a matter of the judicial system, and both judicial systems are collaborating on this matter, and we hope to be able to close it soon.”
The Nordic ministers stressed their countries' dedication to deepening relations with Nigeria and the wider West African region.
They are scheduled to travel to Accra, Ghana, to continue promoting investment and trade cooperation.