I love the fact that Simon Ekpa is arrested and possibly going to face trial. He has caused the Igbo nation serious damages through his activities even when Nnamdi Kanu personally wrote him to back off from the nagging sit-at-home that destroys the economy of Igbo land.
But I may advise you not to take seriously that statement by the Defence Minister that he will be extradited to Nigeria for trial. He spoke out of sentiment, not facts of law.
REASONS:
Only a country like Nigeria extradites its citizens for trial abroad like they did Lanre Shittu years ago and others later.
*Ekpa is a citizen of Finland, even the statement from Finland says so. No country is under any legal, diplomatic, or political obligation to extradite its own citizen for trial abroad.
- No extradition is done until a court gives an order to that effect, and he being a citizen is enough reason for a court to decline an order for his extradition.
*Terrorism is international crime and UN hasn’t been able to have a Convention on Terrorism because countries could not agree on the definition of a terrorist act.
Therefore, what Nigeria defines as terrorism may not appeal to Finland as that.
So, even if terrorism charges are held against him, a court can decide that he will be tried in Finland since he is a citizen.
In international law enforcement, countries take proper notice of their status and honour. If Finland extradites its citizen for trial abroad, which is not likely, it has invariably accepted that it lacks trust in its own judicial system and prefers Nigeria’s judicial system as superior or better. Reasonable countries don’t play away their honour in diplomatic issues
*If Ekpa swings the charges against him to political issue or he fighting for freedom from another state, then extradition can’t hold because political matter such as one fighting for another state on his right of self determination is not extraditable.
It’s trite in law that people can be tried in their absence and punishment still meted. They are myriad of such instances where people have been tried for crimes while not in the country where trials held, and the judgment on such trails executed across jurisdiction.
For instance, Emmanuel Nwude got convicted for banking frauds in some 6 countries and the judgments sent to Nigeria, enrolled and executed for which he was committed to jail here in Nigeria.
So, if Finland refuses to extradite its citizen, as is very likely to happen, any country that has charges against him can try him in his absence and send the judgment to Finland for execution, provided such would not amount to double jeopardy. - Moreover, EU countries which includes Finland are vehemently against capital punishment. So the likelihood of the Finish court ordering that Ekpa be extradited to face death sentence, the punishment for treasonable felony, is very slim and quite unlikely.
- The impossibility of a court making such order in a situation where one can plead acting in self determination is what made Nigeria take the illegal action of renditioning or abduction of Nnamdi Kanu because they knew a British court could never have made an order extraditing its citizen to Nigeria for trial.
While he cools off in detention, I verily wish that Igbo land will have some peace and enjoy the freedom to sit at home or go to work, and not Ekpa bullying everyone from his comfort zone in Finland
