HELSINKI, Finland — (AP) — Police in Finland said Thursday they had detained five suspects in connection with deadly violence in southeastern Nigeria and were seeking a court extension of the detentions.
The police did not identify the suspects, only saying that a dual Finnish-Nigerian citizen, born in the 1980s, was under criminal investigation.
However, Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian linked to the Biafran separatist movement, lives in Lahti, where the Päijät-Häme District Court will consider a request from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation to keep the suspects in custody.
Ekpa is one of the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra separatist group that is demanding the creation of an independent Biafra state from the troubled southeast region of Nigeria.
“The police suspect that the man (under investigation) has furthered his efforts from Finland in such a way that has resulted in violence against civilians and public authorities and in …