Fani-Kayode reacts to Simon Ekpa’s detention in Finland over terrorism charges

By Blessing Chinagorom

The former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode on X, has reacted to the arrest and the detention Simon Ekpa by the Finnish authorities for terrorism-related charges and inciting terrorism in Nigeria.

It was reported that the Finish National Bureau of Investigation said it has requested that Ekpa be remanded on suspicion of the public exhortation for an offence, committed with terrorist intent.

Ekpa is charged alongside four other persons on suspicion of financing a terrorist offence, according to a statement by the Finnish police on Thursday.
Though the police statement did not mention Ekpa’s name, local Finnish news website Helsingin Sonamat listed his name in its report of the case.

The police statement noted that “the requests for remand are related to a criminal investigation in which a dual citizen of Finland and Nigeria born in the 1980s is suspected of public exhortation to an offence, committed with terrorist intent.

The Finnish police said it carried out international cooperation during the criminal investigation.
It is not the first time Ekpa has been arrested in Finland. In February 2023, days before the presidential and national assembly elections, Ekpa was arrested in Finland where he resides after threatening that the elections would not be held in the South-East.

Ekpa was arrested by the police in his residence in the Lahti area of the country, a Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat had reported.

The separatist repeatedly declared that there would be no elections in the Southeast region of the country and insisted on the observance of a sit-at-home every Monday in the area to protest the detention of leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.
The former Minister in his reaction said this arrest and detention is good news, saying Ekpa derived pleasure from killing, torturing Nigerians and waged war on the country from the safety of Finland.

According to him, “Not only is this misguided young man a feral pyscopath, a hate-filled sociopath, a notorious coward and a man of blood but he is also a religious bigot, an unrepentant racist, an ethnic supremacist and an enemy of humanity.

He added, “Many innocent Nigerians were killed on his orders and as a consequence of his foul and divisive rhetoric”.

Fani-Kayode hoped this will serves as a lesson to others in the country who believe that division, violence and terror are the only way forward and who have no respect for the sanctity of human life.