On Thursday, Ekpa was arrested by the police on suspicion of money laundering. When asked to comment on the alleged crime by Yle on Friday, Ekpa declined.
Ekpa is fluent in Finnish and claims on his social media pages to have been working in the legal industry in Finland since 2009, initially at a legal office in Lahti, and later through his own company, Ekpa & Co.
While Ekpa portrays himself as an expert in foreign law on his company’s website, he does not personally represent his clients in court and is not a licensed attorney.
Ekpa, who claims to be a follower of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has consistently instructed the people of the South-East to participate in a sit-at-home and boycott the upcoming general election on Saturday.
It is believed that Ekpa’s repeated calls for a sit-at-home, which he shares via social media, have played a significant role in inciting violence and causing damage to property and loss of lives in the region by those who enforce the orders.
- Born on March 21, 1985, Simon Ekpa is a Nigerian-Finnish lawyer, political activist, and former athlete who hails from the Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
- During the African Junior Athletics Championships held in Cameroon in 2003, Ekpa earned a silver medal for Nigeria in the 100 meters race.
- Since 2007, the pro-Biafra agitator who was arrested has been residing in Lahti, Finland. Additionally, he was a candidate in the 2022 Finnish county elections and is a member of the National Coalition Party of Finland.
- Ekpa rose to prominence when he took over as the primary broadcaster for Radio Biafra following the detention of the IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. However, he was subsequently dismissed from his role due to his reported violation of the organization’s regulations.
- Simon Ekpa is an academic and experienced immigration expert with profound knowledge of all the laws regulating the migration of individuals to countries such as Finland, Australia, Canada and the EU including to the United Kingdom.
- The individual who advocated for separatism was reputed to have stirred up violence in South-Eastern Nigeria by purportedly encouraging it through their broadcasts and directives to stay at home
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