We Must Track Down Simon Ekpa, CDS Vows

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has accused Finland of shielding Simon Ekpa, a self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Musa, who was a guest on Channels Television’s special broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 25th Democracy Day in Abuja also decried the activities of IPOB in the South-East, demanding the arrest and prosecution of Ekpa.

He called on the Nigerian government to take decisive action, including exploring diplomatic options to curb the menace of the factional leader of the IPOB.

“We have repeatedly complained about the issue of Simon Ekpa. He is in Finland and the Finnish Government is giving him all the support and he is doing what he is doing,” he said.

“The comments he is making, people are being killed and nothing is being done. This is democracy. If the European Union is supporting democracy and this is happening and they are not taking action, then they don’t mean well for Nigeria.

“We have said that in clear terms. We need to diplomatically find means of getting him out of whatever it is that he is doing. He must be arrested, he must be prosecuted.

“Look at it from the other way, assuming he is in Nigeria, he is doing that to the Finnish government, you think the European Union will allow that to happen? They definitely will not.”

Repentant Criminals
During the show, the CDS also spoke on the deradicalisation initiative by the military for repentant terrorists in the North-East, saying it is yielding the needed results.

“It is working very well. I was the commander when it started, we were the ones that started it and every process that we did, we worked together with the state because the state had the authority on the ground,” he said.

“Before it started and they were willing to surrender, the states were the ones that took the mantle and we followed up. Everyone that surrendered came first to the security forces that were closest to them. They were disarmed, and we got the DSS to profile them.

“The state government provides the administration of those people and we took them to their camps. We were able to separate them and realised that not all of them were combatant. Some were forced, and some were used as labourers.

“The main ones that were the actual operators were kept separately, working together with the victims.”

The Operation Safe Corridor is a programme introduced under former President Muhammadu Buhari.