Biafra: ‘What Finnish Govt Told Us When We Reported Simon Ekpa’

The Igbo community in Finland has accused the Finnish Government of refusing to sanction the factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, for encouraging violence and killings in the South-East region of Nigeria.

The chairman of the Igbo community in Finland, Kingsley Orji, said the group had laid a complaint to the Finnish General Assembly and the European General Assembly.

He said the group officially asked the Finnish government to stop Ekpa’s utterances and directives to his followers in southeast Nigeria but nothing has been done.

According to Orji, nothing was also done when the pro-Biafra agitator refused to appear before the European General Assembly last Friday.

He said: “We are aware he is causing problems in Nigeria and we have laid complaints but they are telling us about his human rights. He was to appear before the European General Assembly last Friday but he didn’t and nothing was done to him.

“Simon Ekpa is a politician here in Finland and he belongs to a political party. And we are talking about a man who openly canvasses for arms and ammunition to be supplied to him.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t know what he does exactly or says exactly to the people in Nigeria that makes them obey him foolishly. But he believes he is fighting a cause. I will advise the people the Igbo in Nigeria to go about their businesses and on election days, go and cast their votes.

“What baffles me is that governors of these southeast states allow someone outside Nigeria to control what is happening in the states they govern. Are they not the chief security officers of these states? Are they going to fold their hands and do nothing? Simon Ekpa is living peacefully here just like the other 400 Igbo who are also citizens of Finland. I am a citizen too and if Ekpa is living here and causing problems in the southeast of Nigeria. It should be taken seriously and acted upon.

“I don’t see anything happening to him from this end because they respect human rights here and activism is allowed but if terrorism is what he is practising in Nigeria, then that should be tackled seriously. We have pushed him here for the government to tackle but I don’t see government doing anything. But something can be done from Nigeria. The governors of the southeast should stand up and defend their territory if they see him as a threat.”