Former Radio Biafra anchorman, Simon Ekpa has been arrested in Finland.
Ekpa was taken into custody on Thursday 48 hours before the start of the general elections in Nigeria.
Ekpa was later released on Thursday evening after the police allegedly arrested him for a suspected crime in Finland.
Criminal Investigator, Tommi Reen from the Central Criminal Police told the HS news outlet that the Keskusrikospoliisi (KRP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Finland had a police operation in a private apartment in the centre of Lahti.
Reen said the operation was connected to an ongoing preliminary investigation. He did not comment further on the matter.
Nigeria had asked Finland to intervene in Ekpa’s activities. Last week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Godfrey Onyeama invited the Finnish ambassador, Leena Pylvänäinen to a meeting.
The Finland-based legal practitioner and a former athlete is known for his subversive comments against the country and its leadership.
The political activist had in recent years spoken against the unity of the country, insisting the Republic of Biafra must be achieved.
Ekpa increased his campaigns after June 2021 re-arrest and repatriation of Nnamdi Kanu, founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Security and intelligence service have linked the kidnapping and murders in the South-East to speeches made by Ekpa.
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.
