Finnish police release Ekpa, pro-Biafran agitator, hours after grilling

Finland authorities on Thursday arrested Simon Ekpa, a popular pro-Biafra separatist agitator and self-acclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in Finland.

Ekpa was later released on Thursday evening after the police allegedly arrested him for a suspected crime in Finland.

The Finnish Central Criminal Police confirmed Ekpa’s release on Thursday, according to HS reports.

The police claimed that its operation in Lahti and the subsequent arrest of the pro-Biafra agitator were in connection with the ongoing preliminary investigation.

“The person being questioned today is suspected of a crime. We will return to the title on Friday,” Tommi Reen from the Central Criminal Police told HS during a phone interview.

According to a Finland news outlet, Helsingin Sanomat (HS), the police escorted the separatist out of his apartment in Lahti.

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’s 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.”When contacted, an official of the Finnish Embassy in Abuja who craves anonymity confirmed Ekpa’s arrest. “It is our understanding that he is currently in police custody in Finland,” the official who is not authorised to speak to the press said.

“According to information available to us, the image is verified by Helsingin Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper; in it, Ekpa is seen being escorted out of his home in Lahti by plainclothes Finnish police”, the official volunteered.

Before his eventual arrest on Thursday, Nigerians all over the world have signed a petition appealing to the Finnish Government, Nigerian Government and the European Union to arrest Ekpa, the brain behind the sit-at-home order in the South-east.

Ekpa had repeatedly ordered the people of the South-east to observe a sit-at-home and asked them to boycott the country’s general elections billed for tomorrow.

Aside from the threat to elections, the Finland-based Nigerian had insisted that people of the region must observe sit-at-home every Monday to protest the detention of Kanu. The sit-at-home directive has been reportedly linked to killings in the South-east.

However, the leadership of IPOB through its spokesperson, Emmanuel Powerful, had distanced the group from the sit-at-home order issued by Ekpa.