Category Nigeria News

The Federal Government has described the conviction of Simon Ekpa for terrorism-related offences and other charges by a Finnish Court as “a major victory” against terrorism.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, stated this while reacting to Ekpa’s sentencing to six years in prison by the Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland on Monday.

“We welcome the news of Simon Ekpa’s conviction by a Finnish court for terrorism-related crimes and his sentencing to six years in prison. A major victory for the Nigerian people in the collective fight against terror”, Mohammed wrote on his official handle on X. &nbsp,

READ ALSO: Finish Court Sentences Simon Ekpa To Six Years In Prison For Terrorism Offences

Ekpa was found guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, inciting the public to commit crimes for terrorist purposes, engaging in aggravated tax fraud, and violating the Lawyers Act.

The court ordered that he remain in custody.

The judges found that he supplied these groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition, and encouraged followers on X (formerly Twitter) to commit crimes in Nigeria.

The trial, which ran from May 30 to June 25, 2025, included 12 days of hearings, with a panel of three judges unanimously delivering the verdict.

According to the ruling reported by a Finnish newspaper, Yle, the three-member panel of judges, in a unanimous ruling, also stated that Ekpa was an influential member of a militant separatist movement whose goal was to actualise the secession of a Biafran state from Nigeria.

The district court, as reported by Yle, further stated that Ekpa supplied these groups with “weapons, explosives, and ammunition” through his network of contacts in the region, and that he was also found to have encouraged his followers on the social media platform X to “commit crimes” in Nigeria.

A long-term resident of Lahti and one-time local councillor, Ekpa reportedly committed the crimes from the Finnish city, according to the verdict, giving the Finnish court jurisdiction in the case.

He had denied all the charges in court.

However, the district court’s verdict is not final, as it can be appealed to a higher court.

Festus Ogun, a lawyer, has argued that he is suing the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, indicting him for violating his fundamental human rights.

Ogun, who was a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, claimed to have approached the court after learning that the governor had blocked him on Twitter on March 13th, 2021.

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He claimed that the governor had prevented him from getting access to crucial public information because he lived and practiced there.

Ogun argued that Section 39 of the Constitution’s right to information included the right to freedom of expression.
Ogun recalled the events that occurred on October 20, 2020 during the #EndSARS protests and stressed the importance of official communication with the governor’s handle.

Watch the video below.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be destroyed if former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, was given the presidential ticket, according to Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Nyesom Wike.

Wike made this statement during a media debate on Monday, reacting to the governor of Bauchi State’s comments in an interview on Politics Today, in which he claimed the PDP was considering naming Obi and former President Goodluck as candidates for the 2027 presidential election.

Watch the video below.

On Monday, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, declared that residents of Abuja were prohibited from entering shanties and that they would be expelled.

In a live media chat with Wike, who claimed that shanties had defaced cities and provided criminals with hideouts, Wike claimed this.

Are shanties legal when you say them? We can’t make fun of the security, you see. You have criticized “one-chance,” kidnapping, and insecurity. These individuals are the owners of all these charities.

They occasionally take over the corridors where the road is supposed to pass. And they say, “Compensate,” when you want to travel. Who is compensated by?

It is incorrect, he said. Criminals, you see, don’t stay where you’ll find them. Criminals reside in these places where it is impossible to find them.

Also read: Nobody Can Suppress Us, We’ll Keep Demolitioning Shanties, Wike!

“We’re going to make sure that no one who lives there is a criminal will be thrown out.” It’s unfortunate. Because security is so important, nothing can be done about it.

“Any government has no business in government,” according to the statement. You see, the minister said, “We have to be careful about this poverty issue and nothing else.”

He asked the FCT’s residents who couldn’t afford to rent apartments in lawfully designated areas what the government was doing to assist them in getting homes because it was not feasible for the Federal Government to build homes for every Nigerian.

Additionally, he asserted that being poor is not a justification.

Wike remarked, “We cannot say that we should permit you to kill people, rob people, and kidnap people because of poverty.”

We have asked people who claim to own this land, or occasionally, why they are not developing the land, because “that’s not allowed, it defaces the city.”

Why do you permit these criminals to settle here and bring problems to the city?

In Gishiri, under the Katampe area of the nation’s capital, Wike ordered the demolition of homes in the right-of-way of the nation’s capital in March 2025.

He disclosed that the occupants had a three-month grace period to leave so that the road construction could continue, but they turned a blind eye to their calls instead.

He argued against the demolition of properties in the country’s seat of power in December 2024, saying he would not be subject to blackmail.

According to Wike, the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is destroying structures that were illegally constructed on government lands.

“I’d like to let me let you know that Nigerians and Abuja residents don’t fear being blackmailed.”

You simply cannot be in this position and claim to be blackmailed, especially in this Abuja. There are a lot of land grabers. Some of us have finally put our feet up.

Jake Epelle, the chief executive officer of TAF Africa, has criticised the results of the local government elections held on August 30, 2025, calling them a “democratic scam.”

Epelle claimed that the exercise, which had been run by a democratically elected government, was completely constitutional.

What transpired in River State on Saturday can only be described as unprecedented political manipulation, which is sort of a sham, and what appears to be a democratic scam, Epelle said on Monday in an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

To support that point, I say that. I assert that the entire process of holding this election on Saturday was completely unconstitutional and illegal.

We are intelligent, civilized, River State residents, and that’s that. They probably predicted that people would walk in the streets, and I did, in particular, urge River State’s young people to stay out of their trap.

He continued, “We cannot continue the way we are going, and it is a slap in the face to the River State people.”

He added that the figures did not accurately represent the actual events that took place during the exercise.

Epelle also warned that the state’s elections would raise a potential constitutional dispute because they would face court challenges.

The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) held the elections for the council on Saturday in the state’s 23 local government districts.

The Rivers State local government elections were conducted in error, according to former vice president Atiku Abubakar and labour party candidate for president in 2023, according to Peter Obi, the former vice president.

The occupation government’s local government election in Rivers State is “a complete ripoff of elective democracy” and an absolute shill. It is obvious that the ruling APC party is not letting anyone know that it is prepared to throw caution the wind in order to gain an excessive political advantage, Atiku said on X on Monday.

He warned that the Tinubu administration’s plan for troubled by the development.

Additionally, Atiku urged Rivers State’s opposition parties to turn down the election, arguing that the organization that conducted the polls lacked legal authority.

“The President Bola Tinubu regime’s dangerous trajectory is taking our beloved nation into the attention of well-intentioned Nigerians, the international community, and allies and partners of Nigeria.”

In the same vein, I want to express my unwavering support for the good people of Rivers State, who are currently victims of political bribes perpetrated by a power cabal that wants to permanently end their democratic rights, “he said.

Peter Obi also criticized the polls, calling them an unconstitutional assault on democracy.

Obi called the Rivers State local government election “rascality taken too far” in the running of the election.

When a sole administrator who has been appointed illegally conducts elections that should empower the electorate, “it is a double tragedy for our democracy.” He claimed that this is not democracy; rather, it is the complete destruction of its foundation.

He added that these actions violate the rule of law and pose a risk to governance at its most fundamental level.

Illegality never produces legitimacy. The state and the populace are at risk if any structure is constructed on a foundation of lawlessness. We can’t pretend to be democratic while suppressing the people’s wishes, particularly at the grassroots, where it matters most, he added.