Hours after the arrest of self-acclaimed Biafra Prime Minister, Simon Ekpa in Finland, President Bola Tinubu is yet to make any official reaction.
Similarly, there has been no official statement from the presidency or any of the President’s aides on the arrest.
Naturenex recalls Ekpa, and four others were arrested and detained by a Finnish district court in Lahti on probable cause for public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent in Nigeria.
Authorities allege that Ekpa used social media platforms to spread separatist propaganda linked to IPOB, which advocates for the secession of southeastern Nigeria. These activities are reported to date back to August 2021.
In addition to these charges, Finnish authorities have previously investigated Ekpa for alleged financial crimes, including fundraising through dubious means.
While the arrest has continued to generate a buzz on both conventional and social media, the presidency has been silent on the development.
Quoting the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Vanguard said it was the National Security Adviser, NSA, or the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice who was the right person to comment on the issue.
Similarly, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, said he is yet to know the mind of his principal and can’t preempt him.
He added that President Tinubu is currently out of the country on official assignment and has not been properly briefed in order to take a position on the matter.
Bwala said: “You know that the role of a spokesman is to speak the mind of your principal, and you cannot preempt the principal until you hear so. For example, this event took place in Finland, so the natural thing is that probably the Embassy in Finland will brief the Foreign Affairs Office, then the Foreign Affairs Office will probably brief the National Security Adviser or the President directly, and then the President will take a position which will then give us the insight into his position on the matter, and we’ll be able to respond to the media.
“At the moment, the President is out of the country and probably must be on his way, and then there is no official statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. So, it will amount to, I don’t want to say gaslighting. It will amount to irresponsibility for a spokesman to take a position that is not the position of his principal.
“So, maybe a little more time will help us to be able to get what the mind of the President is regarding the matter. Usually, in a situation like that, it is not even the President that immediately acts in a nation of rule of law. In a nation of rule of law, the chief law officer of the country is the attorney general.
“So, probably the Attorney-General now will be coordinating with the Foreign Affairs Ministry if there is any government decision in respect of the matter. But I think that at this moment, in my view, I might be wrong, the procedure is that the embassy, which is our foreign office there, will brief probably the Foreign Affairs Minister.
“I think the Foreign Affairs Minister also must have travelled with the President, so it is too early to give a presidential opinion on the matter.”
