The Finnish government has stated that it has began acting on the complaint by the Nigerian government against a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, Simon Ekpa.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Elina Valtonen, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during a press conference.
She explained that Ekpa’s case is now before Finnish courts.
“We have taken this up and discussed this with the Nigerian authorities… and the entire process is within our judicial system,” Valtomen said,
She informed the gathering that the issue came up during a meeting with Nigerian government officials on Tuesday.
Valtonen, however, did not provide details of the legal process
The Nigerian government, for years, has demanded drastic actions from the Finnish government and the European Union to stop Ekpa’s fiery social media activities fuelling killings and instability in Nigeria’s South-east region.
Valtomen and her Nordic counterparts arrived in Nigeria on Monday to deliberate on peace and security and to promote trade and investment cooperation between their countries and Nigeria.
Others with her on the first-of-its-kind group visit of Nordic countries’ top officials are the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Tobias Billström; the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, the State Secretary for International Development of Norway, Bjørg Sandkjær, and the Under Secretary for Foreign Policy, Denmark, Ms Eva Marie Frida Barløse.
The Nordic ministers said they met with the Nigerian government and officials of the West African regional body, ECOWAS, on Tuesday.
According to them, issues of security, economic cooperation, education, trade and investments, and the rule of law, among other topics of shared interests, came up in the deliberation with the Nigerian government.
Ekpa’s case, which has strained the Finnish government’s diplomatic relationship with the Nigerian government, was also discussed, according to Ms Valtomen, who avoided mentioning the name of the Nigerian-Finnish citizen.
According to Premium Times, the Finnish Minister, did not explicitly mention Ekpa’s name, but her description of the case pointed unmistakably to the agitator, whose matter has created a fault line in the Nigeria-Finland diplomatic relationship.
Valtomen stressed that the principle of the rule of law would guide Finland’s handling of Ekpa’s case.
“Finland operates very strictly by the rule of law,” she said, adding that the matter is not a political question but an issue that would be decided solely by Finnish courts.
She said, “It is a question to the judicial system, and both our judicial systems collaborate on this matter, and we hope that we will be able to close it soon.”
