BREAKING: IPOB Leader, Simon Ekpa Arrested By Finnish Police [PHOTO]

• IPOB Leader Simon Ekpa has been arrested.

• Ekpa was reportedly arrested on Thursday by the Finnish Police.

• Plainclothes police officers took him into custody.

EKO HOR BLOG reports that the separatist leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, has been apprehended in Finland after making threats to disrupt Nigeria’s upcoming general election.

According to the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanoma, Simon Ekpa was taken into custody by plainclothes police officers shortly before he was due to be interviewed by a filmmaker at his residence in Lahti, southern Finland.

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The platform claimed that they had gone to Ekpa’s residence for an interview but to their surprise, the Finland police, KRP, answered when the HS team rang the separatist bell.

The HS said the KRP prevented their team from entering Ekpa’s apartment and said that the interview would be moved “to the future”.
As of the time of this report.

The arrest comes as Mr Ekpa intensifies an attempt to frustrate the Nigerian presidential elections scheduled for February 25.

Mr Ekpa, 37, shot into prominence following the abduction of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu by Nigerian authorities in June 2021 — becoming the de facto leader of the secessionist movement. He had declared a so-called sit-at-home edict for residents across the country’s South-East to stay away from polling centres or suffer violent consequences.

Nigerian authorities had also urged Finland to intervene and check Mr Ekpa’s inciting broadcasts from the safety of the European country.

It was unclear whether the police acted on Nigeria’s request or the widespread online clamour for the separatist agitator’s arrest by people of Igbo extraction, especially supporters of Peter Obi, an Igbo politician with rising popularity and an improved shot at the presidency this cycle.

It was not immediately clear why Mr Ekpa was arrested or when he would be released, but the paper said the separatist provocateur was likely to face prolonged interrogations, with officers saying they were only doing their job on the matter.

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A spokesman for the Nigerian foreign ministry did not immediately return a request seeking comments. The Finnish embassy in Abuja was also not available for comments.

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