On Thursday, reported on a municipal politician from Lahti From Simon Ekpa, who leads an armed insurgency in Nigeria. He wants to prevent the Nigerian central government from holding elections in Biafra, located in the southeastern part of the country.
Ekpa is a member of the coalition and serves as a member of the public transport board of the Lahti region.
The information about his activities in Nigeria came as a complete surprise to the Häme assembly on Thursday evening. Executive Director Mika Airinen regrets that the municipal organization has been drawn into an international conflict.
– We will find out the matter right away today, says Airinen.
Helsingin Sanomat also reported on Ekpa’s activities on Thursday. According to Airinen, the information in the media is contradictory. Ekpa describes himself as a human rights activist and on the other hand he is referred to as the leader of the rebel movement.
– We are not experts on the internal situation in Nigeria in the local organization of the Lahti coalition. We will first clarify what this is all about before we start drawing more conclusions, says Airinen.
Ekpa himself has not yet been heard from.
– If it turns out that Ekpa is involved in armed activities, his position in the coalition must be weighed, commented Airinen.
Countrymen warn of Rwanda’s fate
Simon Ekpa belongs to the Igbo minority in Nigeria. In the southeastern part of Nigeria lies the region of Biafra inhabited by the Igbo people.
Hundreds of Igbo people live in Finland. The Igbo Union Finland association that represents them wants to resign from Ekpa’s activities.
– He should stop inciting hatred and provoking. Ekpa does not represent the Igbos of Finland, says the chairman of the organization Slave Anya Odim.
He points out that many Igbos living in Finland still have relatives and family members in Nigeria. As violence escalates, these people are at risk.
– If Finland does not intervene in Ekpa’s activities, we in Biafra are heading towards a new Rwanda. He must be stopped, Odim says.
Odim refers to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where nearly 800,000 people were killed.
Nigeria has also demanded that Finland stop Ekpa’s operations. Ekpa is very active on social media, where he has tens of thousands of followers.
Difficult to intervene in Finland
Ekpa is a Finnish citizen and the state’s possibilities to intervene in his activism are limited.
– Incitement against a national group could be one crime, but the Nigerian central government does not really care about a national group, thinks the professor of criminal and procedural law Matti Tolvanen from the University of Eastern Finland.
Ekpa has said that it represents the IPOB organization and its armed wing. Nigeria considers these groups to be terrorist organizations, but the European Union does not share this perception.
According to Professor Tolvanen, the international classification of organizations does not matter in serious crimes.
– It is essential to ask whether these organizations meet the hallmarks of terrorism as defined in Finnish law.
– If it is considered that they are terrorist organizations, then the law gives many opportunities to intervene. Even the slightest contact with the organization is punishable, Tolvanen describes.
– The Finnish authorities should find out what these groups are doing in practice in Nigeria, the professor continues.
He considers Ekpa’s actions exceptional.
– There has never been a similar situation before, where a foreign government is defied like this, says the professor.
Protection police officer Simon Ekpa did not want to comment. With the new intelligence laws, Supo no longer conducts a preliminary investigation, but, if necessary, consults the police responsible for criminal investigations.
The Central Criminal Police also refused to comment on the case.