11/06/2025
Finland: PMs Case
Former municipal politician Simon Ekpa, 40, from Lahti was so vociferous in his terrorism trial on Tuesday that the entire session reserved for his hearing was not enough. The Päijät-Häme District Court will continue Ekpa's part on Friday.
Ekpa denies the charges of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. The alleged crimes in the charges were committed between 2021 and 2024 at home in Lahti.
Ekpa moved to Lahti from Nigeria as an athlete in 2007. At that time, he was not yet involved in his homeland, the so-called Biafra region in southeastern Nigeria, and its people.
– I knew that people were fighting for Biafra, but I was an average Nigerian supporter.
The defense asked him to tell about the history of his birthplace and his own involvement in the Biafra situation.
Ekpa, who alternated between Finnish and English, spoke through an interpreter. He said he would tell the story briefly, but during the day they had time to go through the stages of Africa's most populous country and its people since the 1860s.
The history of the country, which is made up of different ethnic groups, is bloody. Mass murders and killings have continued, and according to Ekpa, the true number of deaths has not been made known to the world.
The content of the speeches comes from a people who have been killed for years.
Simon Ekpa
His own interest in Biafra began in 2019–2020. At that time, Ekpa helped a group of about two hundred widowed women start a business and obtained other help.
Forces supporting the Nigerian government had attacked the community and shot indiscriminately.
– I received information that three of the women had been killed, their throats had been slit. I lost my own mother when I was three months old. The killing of these women hit me very hard, Ekpa said with emotion.
Ekpa began posting pictures of brutal killings and other violence in Biafra on social media. He sent messages on the messaging service X and started live streaming on YouTube in 2021.
– The purpose was to draw the attention of the international community to what had happened to Biafra. I did not call for crimes to be committed, I reported.
According to the prosecutor, Ekpa posted 40 messages inciting crimes.
Ekpa supported the independence of Biafra. He said he made up to three live videos a day, even at night, so that they could be watched in different time zones like in Australia.
Due to the social media posts, members of the so-called Biafra Local Government contacted Ekpa in 2022. He said he had not known about the local government before this. Ekpa began sharing its messages and material on social media.
– I usually didn’t read the messages because I knew they were for self-defense.
Ekpa said he got the most information about the events from the local government, with whose members he might have had several meetings a day. He denied the prosecutor’s claim that he had given instructions to the Biafrans.
The prosecutor asked why the government members mentioned by Ekpa, such as doctors and professors, did not send these social media messages themselves.
– It’s about how to get publicity. Not everyone wants to lose their account. And not everyone has an international audience like me.
Due to the violent content, Ekpa’s YouTube channel with 50,000 followers was later closed. At its peak, he had almost 180,000 X-followers.
– I see my actions as a service to humanity, said Ekpa, who also suffered serious health problems around the same time.
According to Ekpa, the social media content may have used language that Western countries are not used to.
– The content of the speeches comes from a people who have been killed for years. They are helpless. It is a voice from a people crying out for help.
Ekpa was elected Prime Minister of the Biafra government-in-exile, but he considered this position to be purely ceremonial, because the country is not independ
