Finland government disowns viral warning letter to Simon Ekpa

The Government of Finland has disowned a letter attributed to its prime minister, Sanna Marin, purportedly asking a Nigerian-Finish lawyer to withdraw some controversial comments about the upcoming Nigerian general elections.

Finland’s Ambassador to Nigeria Leena Pylvänäinen in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, on Thursday, said “it is a complete fake but unfortunately has spread very widely sadly.”

According to the letter, Finland’s prime minister purportedly gave a 48-hour to Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian-Finish and headliner in the South-east Biafran agitation, to desist from encouraging Nigerians to boycott the upcoming general elections.

https://twitter.com/LeenaPylvanaine/status/1626228594417766400?s=20&t=LIprOn_cXbrPzOH5VTG_Wg

PREMIUM TIMES spotted the inconsistency in the way Mr Ekpa’s last name was spelt in the salutation and the uncivil tone of the letter, among other features that discredited the letter.

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Ms Pylvänäinen noted that her team had been busy trying to correct this false information. The first tweet was taken down by Twitter when they were alerted by authorities in Helsinki, Finland.

“Sadly, retweets and screenshots now appear on different media,” she said, adding that it was sad to see that many media houses had taken the letter at face value and distributed it.

Ms Pylvänäinen reiterated that both countries (Finland and Nigeria) have been in communication regarding Mr Ekpa.

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She was on Tuesday summoned by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting at which, she said, she told the ministry that she could not comment on the content of the letter. “But there are definitely contacts and communication. It is a shared concern.”

She noted that Finland as part of the EU attaches importance to the upcoming Nigeria election and is committed to supporting the authorities to make sure they are carried out safely and securely in all parts of the country.

“This is very much a shared interest and concern and we do not condone any violence or incitement to violence or any calls to stop the election. That is of course unacceptable,” Ms Pylvänäinen said.