The low-hanging fruit about Simeon Ekpa’s arrest by the Finnish authorities is that funding for the terrorists terrorising Igbo land has been cut off, and so, peace is gradually returning to my beloved Igbo land.
By Chukwudi Iwuchukwu
At the height of his terror, Simeon Ekpa was raising as high as $1 million from his delusional supporters scattered all over the supporters every quarter.
During their June fundraising appeal moderated by Simoen Ekpa, which I monitored, the militia leader raised $109,000 in one month.
As we know, the funds raised went into terrorism and the insecurity that we witnessed in the southeast in the past 3 years.
Being awash with free cash that he did not know what to do with, the leader of the Autopilot went on a spending spree by hiring a US-based lobbyist firm, Moran Global Strategies (MGS), to help advance the cause of Bafra in the US, and in return, the US-based lobbyist firm was being paid $10,000 every month by Simeon Ekpa.
But all these abnormalities have come to an end as the source of funding for what is a self-inflicted terrorism that happened to Igbo land. is currently cooling his heels at a Finnish prison.
Because of Ekpa’s arrest, so many communities under the control of his boys are being liberated.
Orsu, in Imo state, was a no-go area but not anymore, as peace is gradually returning to the once-conquered community, and it is like that for so many communities in the southeast that were once conquered by Simeon Ekpa’s boys.
These communities are feeling again what life was for them before Simon Ekpa happened to us.
This is not yet Uhuru; a lot of work needs to be done, and our governors in the southeast need to come together to support the Nigerian security agencies so that these sons of the devil will be sent to hades, where they will belong.
When this madness started 4 years ago by killing policemen and other security agents, so many of us spoke out that this thing does not make sense and this is where we are heading to, and I was shut down.
Today, I have been vindicated as chicken has come home to roost, and our land is witnessing the biggest self-inflicted terrorism on a scale we have not seen before in our lifetime.
But the lessons still remain.
Biafra is at the ideology of every Igbo man; it is who we are, but this Biafra that these current Simeon Ekpa boys are pushing is cruel and can’t work.
In fact, the Biafra franchise has turned into a personal hustle for Simeon Ekpa and other jobless fellows who are looking for how to make quick cash.
Biafra as a country can’t work; it did not work in 1967 and can’t work now.
The Biafra we need as Igbo is an economic Biafra—the economic Biafra that will liberate our people from poverty, hunger, and hopelessness.
The only challenge to this economic Biafra becoming a reality is that we have terrible people and the worst of us ruling us.
From Hope Uzodimma to the guy in Ebonyi, incompetent governors , and our land is worse off for it today.
We need to get our leadership deficit right; once we get it right,
We can then create an excellent economic Biafra model for the rest of the country to copy.
A prosperous, thriving region that works, which will be the pride of the Black man.
At the moment, we don’t have it, and even the illusionary Biafra thing can’t solve this problem.
Chukwudi Iwuchukwu is a public affairs analyst
