ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Following the just ended sit-at-home in the South East instigated by Finland-based Simon Ekpa, a factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Igbos resident in Finland under the aegis of Igbo Union Finland are to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, 18 December 2022.
A statement made available to Sundiata Post and signed by Kingsley Orji, Chairman, Igbo Union Finland, gave the venue of the meeting is Kilpakuja 1.
The statement reads:
General Igbo Assembly Meeting
“I write to inform you that there will be an emergency meeting of Ndi-Igbo residing in Finland.
Date, Sunday 18.12
Venue: Kilpakuja 1
Time: 16.00
“This meeting is very necessary inview of the ongoing carnage going on in Igbo land. We all must have read or be informed of the extent of bloodshed orchestrated by one singular command announcement from Finland. Evidencial documents and/or order for action alluding to this indiscriminate bloodbath and destruction of properties is our primary focus for discussion.
“The essence of the meeting is for us as a community to agree on an action plan.
“I urge leaders of various Igbo organizations to place this announcement in their respective platforms as the meeting is meant for and concern Ndi-Igbo.”
Simon Ekpa, who is a naturalised Finnish citizen and factional leader of IPOB, has been declaring sit-at-home in the South East, the most recent being the just-ended five-day sit-at-home in the South East.
At the end of the five-day sit-at-home, Ekpa declared that there would be no election in the South East in 2023.
The former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, on Friday, said that the people of South East zone would ignore the no-election-in-South East order by the factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Simon Ekpa, just as they ignored his five-day sit-at-home order.
Nwodo, who was also a former Governor of Enugu State, said Ekpa should be arrested and prosecuted as a result of his five-day sit-at-home order which resulted in loss of lives, properties and other criminal activities in South East.
While saying that IPoB always made their announcements through their team of lawyers , and spokesperson, Emma Powerful, he added that Ekpa’s directives was tantamount to disloyalty and disrespect for the people of the zone and the IPoB family.
He added that his no-election order was the height of his irresponsibility.
“Simon Ekpa is a dissident member of IPoB because if he is loyal to its Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, whom all of us have been fighting for his freedom from the Federal Government, he wouldn’t have been this irresponsible. IPoB through its team of lawyers, and spokesperson, Emma Powerful, made a public announcement to clarify that Ekpa’s five-day sit-at-home order was illegal and that people should go about their normal businesses.
“But Ekpa, with some of his supporters went about causing havoc and destroying lives and properties. That was disloyal of him and his actions tantamount to complete disrespect for the South East and the IPoB family. Normally, his action should be considered criminal and the security agencies are supposed to arrest him for investigation and prosecution.
“The public has rejected his destructive antics and that was why his sit-at-home order was ignored. He is going from place to place attacking people for no just cause.
“Just the way people ignored his five-day sit-at-home order, his no-election order in South East would be ignored. Did he calculate the economic loss before he ordered people not to go to work for five days? Now, people lost their lives, others were injured and properties destroyed as a result of that. The same person comes back to say that there would be no elections in South East in 2023. Why should we not vote for our leaders? Is he going to conduct another election? How do we expect leaders from South East to emerge if we don’t go to the polls to vote for them? His order is the height of irresponsibility,” he said.
Thousands of Nigerians are calling for the arrest of Finland-based Simon Ekpa, a self-accalimed member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPB), following the five-day sit-at-home order that has led to the killing of many residents in the South-East recently.
The petitioners called on the Finnish government, Nigerian government and the European Union to arrest Ekpa, the brain behind the order.
As of Thursday afternoon, over 2700 persons had signed the petition seeking for Ekpa’s arrest.
Ekpa, had in a viral video, ordered the people of the South-East to observe a sit-at-home from December 9 to 14, 2022 – an order that has been marked by bloodshed and destruction of lives and properties in the region by its enforcers.
Although IPOB, through its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, denied issuing such an order, violence had continued to reign in the region.
Consequently, aggrieved Nigerians are signing the petition calling for Ekpa’s arrest for “terrorism and genocide.”
The petition reads, “We call on the Finnish Government, EU, The Nigerian Government to arrest Mr. Simon Ekpa, and investigate all his heinous crimes and terror activities in Eastern Nigeria.
“One Simon Ekpa (also known as Ifeanyi Njoku), a Nigerian living in Finland, and holding Finnish citizenship, has by proxies, successfully established and coordinated an armed rebel group in Eastern Nigeria whom he now wields to destroy lives, property, and businesses in Eastern Nigeria.
“He’s been seen countless times, using his media platforms in Finland to issue orders to his armed goons in Eastern Nigeria to launch deadly attacks on millions of people in the region for flouting his sit-at-home orders.
“Simon is a separatist fighting for state secession but has never been brave enough to come home and lead the war from the front in Nigeria.
“He is rather igniting and fueling terror on his ethnic group who decline his call for secession.
“Simon’s action is stirring up bloodbath – a genocide in the region, and innocent women, children, the aged and youths are the victims dying everyday.
“Sign the petition, and share it everywhere, to call on the Finnish Government, EU, The Nigerian Government to arrest Mr. Simon Ekpa, and investigate all his heinous crimes and terror activities in Eastern Nigeria.”
