{"id":124386,"date":"2024-07-15T22:01:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T21:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt"},"modified":"2024-07-15T23:13:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T22:13:37","slug":"biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt","title":{"rendered":"Biafra: Simon Ekpa announces return of athletic medals to Nigerian Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Biafra activist, Simon Ekpa, on Monday said he has returned all the medals he won for Nigeria back to the Federal Government.<\/p>\n<p>This comes amid his calls for Biafra independence.<\/p>\n<p>Ekpa disclosed this in a statement posted on his official X handle.<\/p>\n<p>Ekpa, who is known as the Prime Minister of Biafra Republic Government In-Exile, won some medals in the past as an athlete for Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>However, Finland-based Ekpa said the medals were sent back to the Nigerian government through a logistics company from Finland on Friday last week and were delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, Nigeria, today, Monday, 15th July.<\/p>\n<p>He said the move was to further denounce Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have successfully returned the medals I won for Nigeria during my athletic days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe medals were delivered today (Monday) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith this development, every tie between me and Nigeria both in sports, spiritually and physically is hereby cut off completely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe medals are as follows: 2003 African Junior SILVER MEDAL; ExxonMobile track and field GOLD MEDAL; ExxonMobile track and field SILVER MEDAL; Other medals have nothing to do with Nigeria, so I retain them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ekpa had earlier renounced his Nigerian citizenship in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Nigeria Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Biafra activist, Simon Ekpa, on Monday said he has returned all the medals he won for Nigeria back to the Federal Government. This comes amid his calls for Biafra independence. Ekpa disclosed this in a statement posted on his official X handle. Ekpa, who is known as the Prime Minister of Biafra [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":124385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[550,254,5186],"class_list":["post-124386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-biafra","tag-nigeria","tag-simon-ekpa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biafra: Simon Ekpa announces return of athletic medals to Nigerian Govt - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Biafra activist, Simon Ekpa, on Monday said he has returned all the medals he won for Nigeria back to the Federal Govern ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biafra: Simon Ekpa announces return of athletic medals to Nigerian Govt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biafra activist, Simon Ekpa, on Monday said he has returned all the medals he won for Nigeria back to the Federal Govern ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T21:01:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T22:13:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/sm_1721068759.172123.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"817\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Biafra: Simon Ekpa announces return of athletic medals to Nigerian Govt\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-15T21:01:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-15T22:13:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\"},\"wordCount\":228,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/sm_1721068759.172123.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Biafra\",\"Nigeria\",\"Simon Ekpa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/biafra-simon-ekpa-announces-return-of-athletic-medals-to-nigerian-govt\",\"name\":\"Biafra: Simon Ekpa announces return of athletic medals to Nigerian Govt - 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