Claims that Finland plans to extradite Nigerian separatist leaders in July 2025 are wrong

Simon Ekpa, the leader of a self-proclaimed banned Biavran separatist group in Nigeria, Finland, was arrested in Finland in November 2024 on allegations related to terrorism. His arrest sparked misinformation online, and recently published an article on X claiming that EKPA will be extradited to Nigeria in July 2025 facing trial. But the claim is wrong; both Nigerians and Finnish authorities deny understanding of such a decision. EKPA lawyers also rejected this statement that it is wrong.

Title of the post X, published on April 22, 2025: “In July, Simon Ekpa, who will be extradited from Finland to Nigeria in July.”

Screenshot of fake posts, taken on April 28, 2025

The Post shared more than 100 times, claiming that Finnish authorities have confirmed the extradition of EKPA to Nigeria and face charges related to terrorism and incitement of violence.

The decision was followed by months of diplomatic negotiations and legal proceedings between Nigeria and Finland, marking an important step in resolving the unrest related to activities in Southeast Nigeria. ”

Attached is an image of Ekpa in orange jumpsuit standing behind a prison bar.

The post was posted by an account with the username “Pastor Okezie J.Atañi”. It has over 49,000 followers, mainly sharing content to support Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's government and all its Progressive Congress (APC) party.

Similar claims were found on Facebook.

The situation of EKPA

Ekpa, a dual citizen of Finland and Nigeria, is the leader of a self-proclaimed Biafra Indigenous Peoples (IPOB) faction that promoted independent groups in southeast Nigeria. The region was plagued by civil war in the late 1960s.

Separatist leaders have been in jail since November 21, 2024, when Finnish authorities detained his online independence campaign for alleged terrorism-related activities that allegedly incited violence against civilians (archived here).

In March 2025, the Nigeria Sanctions Commission (NSC) designated EKPA and 16 entities as terrorist financiers in the country, ordering the immediate determination and freezing of all bank accounts and assets associated with them (archived here).

EKPA's lawyer Kaarle Gummerus said during a conversation on BBC Pidgin on April 16, 2025 that separatist leaders will appear in a Finnish court in June 2025 for a pre-trial hearing (archived here).

However, the claim that EKPA is about to extradite Nigeria is wrong.

“Fake News”

Since his arrest, there has been no reliable reports on the EKPA’s diplomatic arrangements from Finland to Nigeria.

In an email response to AFP's fact check, Mikko Laaksonen, a senior detective from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), said Finnish police “do not know of any extradition decision”.

Gummerus also responded to the claim in an April 28, 2025 email, treating it as “fake news.”

Two spokesmen for the Nigerian Ministry of Justice – Modupe Ogundoro and Kamarudeen Ogunde – both denied knowledge of EKPA's extradition plan in separate phone conversations with AFP fact-checks.

Meanwhile, we used Google Lens to perform a reverse image search on the X post's image and the result determines that it has been edited to add EKPA's face.

The original image is a stock photo uploaded on ISTOCK on May 7, 2018 (archived here).

AFP fact-checks have previously debunked other claims related to the EKPA’s arrest here and here.