The factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, was on Thursday arrested by the Finnish police.
Gists9ja had earlier reported that Ekpa was arrested by Finnish authorities at his apartment in Lahti.
However, after hours of grilling, the Finnish police released Ekpa.
The police allegedly arrested him for a suspected crime in Finland.
The Finnish Central Criminal Police confirmed Ekpa’s release on Thursday, according to HS reports.
The police claimed that its operation in Lahti and the subsequent arrest of the pro-Biafra agitator were in connection with the ongoing preliminary investigation.
Meanwhile, hours after his arrest, Ekpa allegedly started a live broadcast on his Twitter handle @simon_ekpa.
The broadcast generated reactions as to whether he was indeed arrested by the Finnish authorities.
It had thousands of Twitter users connecting and also commenting.
Daily Trust subjected the broadcast to verification and found out that it was pre-recorded and the accompanying tweets were pre-recorded.
Further checks by Daily Trust showed that while the scroll messages from the broadcast showed it was recorded on 22 February 2022 while the caption on the broadcast was tagged “BIAFRA: Simon Ekpa is here to finish what he started 23.2.2023 Live and Direct”
Conclusion: Daily Trust verification confirmed that the viral video broadcast by Mr Ekpa is pre-recorded.
This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development CDD
