Surprise and disbelief trailed the sentencing of self-styled Prime Minister of Biafra Government in Exile, Simeon Ekpa, by the Päijät-Häme Häme District Court in Finland.

Ekpa, who was arrested last year by the Finnish government for terrorism offences, was sentenced to six years in prison by the court on Monday.

Reacting to the development, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), which described it as a welcome development and a sobering reminder of the Nigerian government’s chronic failure to confront insecurity and hold perpetrators of violence accountable at home, added that the fact that “justice came not in Nigeria but in faraway Finland is deeply telling”.

RULAAC in statement by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, said that Ekpa exploited the “pains and frustrations in Nigeria’s Southeast to incite violence, mobilise armed groups, and promote bloodshed through social media”, adding that the Finnish court found that his activities crossed the line from political agitation to terrorism – organising armed groups, facilitating weapons acquisition, and urging his followers to commit crimes in Nigeria.

“That justice came not in Nigeria but in faraway Finland is deeply telling. A foreign government investigated, prosecuted, and convicted a man for sponsoring terrorism that has killed and maimed Nigerians, while our own authorities looked away. This is not only an indictment of Simon Ekpa but also of a Nigerian state that continues to play politics with terrorism, corruption, and insecurity”, the group said

Explaining that Finland had taken action where Nigeria failed with Ekpa by holding him accountable for his role in the violence that devastated communities in the Southeast, it stated that the Nigerian government cannot continue outsourcing justice to foreign jurisdictions.

“It must demonstrate the political will to investigate, prosecute, and punish terrorism and corruption at home, no matter who is involved. Selective justice and impunity only fuel the cycle of violence and erode public trust in institutions.

“Simon Ekpa’s conviction should serve as both vindication for his countless victims in the Southeast and a wake-up call to Nigerian authorities: justice delayed is not only justice denied – it is justice outsourced”, RULAAC stated

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), however, expressed surprise at the “sudden and quick judgment”, saying it is “an international plot” involving Finland and Nigeria with full backup of Britain to jail Ekpa “to pave the way for the imprisonment of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu”.

“Such a conspiracy will not succeed, and we warn against any attempt to jail Kanu because it will not be acceptable to the people of Biafra. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who the Federal government is wrongly prosecuting in a terrorist trial in Abuja, must not be jailed. This international secret conspiracy against the state of Biafra will never succeed. Nigeria should not try to jail Mazi Nnamdi Kanu because it will never be acceptable to the people of Biafra”, MASSOB said

Leader of MASSOB, Uchenna Madu, condemned the sentence imposed on Ekpa as an “unfair jail term”.

Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has alerted to efforts to link the conviction of Simon Ekpa in Finland to IPOB’s lawful activities.

It described the development as a brazen fraud against truth and justice, stressing that the question of Simon Ekpa’s non-membership in IPOB has already been judicially settled in Finland.

IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, stated that Ekpa, under oath in a Finnish court, testified that he never held any position in IPOB or ESN, adding that any narrative linking Ekpa’s personal downfall to IPOB was therefore deliberate misinformation.

“The Nigerian state is orchestrating this smear campaign as a diversionary tactic, timed precisely to contaminate the upcoming ruling on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s no-case submission before Justice James Omotosho, now adjourned until 10 October 2025.

“We ask the world: Why the unexplained delay in delivering judgment when the Federal Government has failed to establish even a prima facie case? The answer is obvious: they are buying time to inject irrelevant and extraneous narratives like Ekpa’s conviction, in a bid to corrupt judicial reasoning,” he said

Powerful said that Ekpa’s conviction was his burden and his alone, which the IPOB would never carry and urged the world to intervene in Kanu’s case.