Can Nigerian Courts Learn from Finland?

The trial, conviction and sentencing of the Biafran separatist agitator, Simon Ekpa, to six years in prison by a Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland on Monday, have exposed the rot in the Nigerian courts and the administration of the criminal justice system.

Ekpa’s speedy trial has justified the sustained calls for the Nigerian courts to sit up and end their snail speed nature.

The court found Ekpa, a self-styled Prime Minister of Biafra, guilty of terrorism-related charges and ruled that he had participated in a terrorist organisation and publicly incited crimes for terrorist purposes.

Delivering judgment, the court held that he had used his significant social media following to stoke tensions in the “Biafra region” between August 2021 and November 2024.

The Finnish court also held that Ekpa encouraged his followers on his X handle to commit crimes in Nigeria.

Ekpa was arrested on November 21, 2024 and charged in May 2025 on suspicion of terrorist activities. The Finnish police had said that Ekpa “contributed to violence and crimes against civilians in South-eastern Nigeria.”

In his first appearance in court on May 30, the Biafra agitator denied terrorism charges against him.

In far less than one year after he was arrested, Ekpa was convicted and sentenced. 

It is common knowledge that if he had been arrested and tried in Nigeria, the trial would have dragged on for years while he remained incarcerated.

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), used the opportunity commend the speedy trial and conviction of Ekpa, saying it should be a source of lesson to the Nigerian judiciary and the prosecuting agencies.

Osigwe noted that the key takeaway from the case was the time it took to commence and conclude the trial. He flayed unnecessary delays in the hearing and conclusion of terrorism-related trials in the country, stressing that some of the cases pending in courts have dragged on for years. 

He said he hoped that the Nigerian judiciary and investigating and prosecutorial agencies watched and took notes of the speedy and thorough disposal of the case and replicate same here.