Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, said relative peace has returned to the country’s South-east since the arrest of a pro-Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, in Finland.
Mr Musa, a general, spoke on Thursday night when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
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Arrest, prosecution
Mr Ekpa, 40, was arrested alongside four others on 21 November 2024 on suspicion of terrorist activities.
The Finnish police said Mr Ekpa “has contributed to violence and crimes against civilians in South-eastern Nigeria.”
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The District Court of Päijät-Häme later ordered that the pro-Biafra agitator be imprisoned “with probable cause on suspicion of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent.”
A Nigerian-Finnish citizen, Mr Ekpa heads Autopilot, a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group seeking the secession of the South-east and some parts of the South-south from Nigeria.
The Finnish government, in mid-May, charged Mr Ekpa with public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent and participation in a terrorist group.
The Biafra agitator appeared before the Päijät-Häme District Court on 30 May to face the terrorism-related charges in a preparatory hearing.
Before now he has been linked to the worsening insecurity in Nigeria’s South-east.
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‘Security better in South-east now’
Speaking on Channels TV’s programme, Mr Musa said security improved in the South-east since Mr Ekpa’s arrest.
“When we talked about him (Ekpa), people thought we were making noise, but since he has been arrested, the South-east is getting better,” he said.
The military chief said while Mr Ekpa’s prosecution was ongoing in Finland, Nigeria’s troops have activated operations to track down his lieutenants in all the states in the South-east.
“We are going to go after the likes of him, wherever they are, and whatever it takes until we bring them down,” he said.
