By Teddy Nwanunobi
Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has denied the controversial Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, saying he was never a member of the group.
AljazirahNigeria reports that Ekpa, a Finland-based secessionist, was arrested by law enforcement agents in the Northern European nation on Thursday.
He was subsequently sent to prison by the district court of Päijät-Häme for “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media”.
Ekpa was said to have committed the crime in 2021 in Lahti municipality.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, NBI, also arrested four other men over alleged terrorist offences.
Reacting to the arrest, IPOB said Ekpa was not a registered member of the group’s chapter in Finland and cannot be its leader.
IPOB’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, in a statement yesterday, noted that Ekpa was a “destructive agent” paid to “infiltrate and destroy” the “peaceful movement” of IPOB.
Powerful accused the Nigerian and Finnish governments of shielding him from arrest.
“Ekpa was never and is not an IPOB member, let alone being a leader in IPOB. IPOB has some family units in Finland and Ekpa is not a registered member of any unit in Finland or any other unit globally.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu established IPOB as a peaceful movement to seek Biafra’s independence via a supervised UN referendum.
“It is a peaceful global movement that has never taken to violence or arms struggle in two decades of our self-determination struggle.
“It was unfortunate that some innocent Biafrans, being passionate for the restoration of the stolen sovereignty of the Biafran Nation, thought that Ekpa was genuinely sympathetic to the Biafra cause.
“Sadly, they had to learn the hard way that he was a destructive agent paid to infiltrate and destroy the peaceful movement for self-determination. He recruited violent criminals to destabilise the South-East in 2021.
“The Ekpa-led group has no alliance, affiliation or relationship with IPOB family worldwide. He recruited his criminal gangs who have been terrorising the Biafran territory since 2021.
“The Nigerian government and politicians that contracted him have been making strenuous efforts to tag the violent crimes of their agent on IPOB just to blackmail and demonise the genuine and peaceful self-determination struggle of the Biafran people led by IPOB.
“On his purported arrest, all IPOB members, Biafrans and lovers of Biafra freedom should remain calm and focused on our core objective which is the restoration of the sovereign state of Biafra,” the statement read.
After Kanu’s arrest in June 2021, Ekpa was appointed to manage Radio Biafra, the broadcast wing of the proscribed group.
Weeks after the appointment, Powerful announced that he had been sacked from the role due to his “refusal to sign the rules of engagement of Radio Biafra”.
The development caused a division in the leadership of IPOB with Ekpa going on to create his own faction.
After breaking up with IPOB, he began attacking the management of the group while issuing counter orders — including directives on the controversial sit-at-home.
On numerous occasions, IPOB’s leadership dissociated themselves from the sit-at-home directives issued by the Ekpa faction.
His faction was blamed for the escalating violence in the South-East, including the killing of police officers and soldiers.
Recently, Ekpa declared himself prime minister of Biafra Government In Exile, BGIE, and created an armed group called ‘Biafra Liberation Army’.
Using social media platforms, he spreads disinformation about happenings in the South-East, shares gory images of killings of security agencies by non-state actors, and calls for the destruction of public facilities.
