Africa
By Anthony Isibor
THE Finnish Government has disowned a letter attributed to its prime minister, Sanna Mirella Marin, purportedly issuing a 48 hour ultimatum to Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian-born –Finish.
According to Premium Times, Leena Pylvänäinen, Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria on Thursday, said “it is a complete fake but unfortunately has spread very widely sadly.”
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.
Realnews recalls that Geoffrey Onyeama , minister of foreign affairs on Tuesday, February 14, held a meeting with Leena Pylvanainen, the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, to discuss on how to arrest the inciting comments, misinfornation, disinformation and hate speech by Ekpa, which could derail the peaceful conduct of the 2023 general elections.
At the meeting, Onyeama , who was represented by Zubairu Dada, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said that Ekpa’s action was fast becoming a threat to the forthcoming elections and that the Federal Government would not take it lightly with him and the Finland government if nothing drastic is not done.
He expressed displeasure over the orders given by Simon Ekpa to his teeming followers, who consequently embarked on killings, maiming, burning and other destructive activities.
He noted that Simon Ekpa is living in the comfort of his home in Finland and dishing out dangerous orders to his followers not to allow elections to hold which is threatening the peace of south-eastern Nigeria.
According to reports, the Ekpa-led faction of the IPOB had reportedly declared that elections would not be allowed to hold in the South-East, and had declared the period of the elections as sit-at-home.
The controversial letter which had since gone viral alleged that the Finnish Government issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Simon Ekpa, Nigerian-Finnish lawyer and factional leader of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, to openly renounce his sit-at home order or face arrest.
According to the fake letter which allegedly signed by Sanna Mirella Marin, Finnish Prime Minister, on Thursday, February 15, 2023, Ekpa was urged to desist from such nefarious activates, or face arrest.
A.I
Tags: Anthony Isibor Geoffrey Onyeama IPOB Sanna Mirella Marin Simon Ekpa Zubairu Dada
