Simon Ekpa, a Finnish-Nigerian self-proclaimed leader of the proscribed Biafran separatist group, was arrested in Finland in November 2024 on charges related to terrorism. His arrest has sparked misinformation online, with a post recently shared on X claiming that Ekpa will be extradited in July 2025 to face trial in Nigeria. But the claim is false; both Nigerian and Finnish authorities denied knowledge of such a decision. Ekpa\u2019s lawyer also rejected the claim as false.<\/h3>\n
\u201cSimon Ekpa to Be Extradited to Nigeria from Finland in July,\u201d reads the headline of an X post<\/a> published on April 22, 2025.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 28, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Shared more than 100 times, the post claims that Finnish authorities have confirmed Ekpa\u2019s extradition to Nigeria to face charges related to terrorism and incitement of violence in July 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision follows months of diplomatic negotiations and legal proceedings between Nigeria and Finland, marking a significant step in addressing the unrest linked to Ekpa\u2019s activities in Nigeria\u2019s southeast,\u201d the post reads.<\/p>\n Attached is an image of Ekpa in an orange jumpsuit standing behind prison bars.<\/p>\n The post was published by an account under the username \u201cPastor Okezie J. Ata\u00f1i.\u201d It has more than 49,000 followers and mostly shares content in support of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration and his All Progressives Congress (APC) party.<\/p>\n Similar claims were spotted here<\/a> and here<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n Ekpa, a dual citizen of Finland and Nigeria, \u00a0is a self-proclaimed leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group pushing for the independence of Nigeria\u2019s southeast. The region was plagued by civil war in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n The separatist leader has been in jail since November 21, 2024, when Finnish authorities\u00a0detained<\/a> him on suspicion of terrorism-related activities for his online independence campaign that allegedly incited violence against civilians (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n In March 2025, the Nigeria Sanctions Committee (NSC) designated Ekpa and 16 entities as alleged terrorism financiers in the country,\u00a0ordering<\/a> the immediate identification and freezing of all bank accounts and assets connected to them (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Pidgin<\/a> on April 16, 2025, Ekpa\u2019s lawyer, Kaarle Gummerus, said that the separatist leader will appear in a Finnish court in June 2025 for pre-trial hearings (archived\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n However, the claim about Ekpa\u2019s imminent extradition to Nigeria is false.<\/p>\n Since his arrest, there have been no credible reports on any diplomatic arrangement for Ekpa\u2019s expatriation from Finland to Nigeria.<\/p>\n In an email response to AFP Fact Check, Finland\u2019s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) senior detective Mikko Laaksonen, said Finnish police are\u00a0\u201cnot aware of any extradition decision\u201d.<\/p>\n Gummerus also responded to the claim in an email on April 28, 2025, dismissing it as \u201cfake news\u201d.<\/p>\n Two spokespersons from the Nigerian justice ministry — Modupe Ogundoro and Kamarudeen Ogundele — both denied knowledge of Ekpa\u2019s extradition plans in separate phone conversations with AFP Fact Check.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we conducted a reverse image search<\/a> on the image attached to the X post using Google Lens, and the results established that it was edited to add Ekpa\u2019s face.<\/p>\n The original image is a stock photo<\/a> uploaded on iStock on May 7, 2018 (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\nEkpa\u2019s case<\/h2>\n
\u2018Fake news\u2019<\/h2>\n