Nigeria’s two dominant political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have strongly rejected a Canadian federal court ruling that designated them as terrorist organisations under Canadian immigration law.
The June 17, 2025 judgment by Justice Phuong Ngo upheld an earlier decision of the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) denying asylum to Nigerian national Douglas Egharevba on account of his decade-long membership in the two parties.
Egharevba, who belonged to the PDP from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC until 2017, disclosed his political history after relocating to Canada. Canadian authorities argued that both parties had been “directly or indirectly complicit” in political violence, electoral malpractice, and democratic subversion.
Court filings cited incidents such as the PDP’s alleged conduct in the 2003 state elections and 2004 local government polls, reportedly marred by ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and the killing of opposition supporters.
The IAD concluded that party leaders benefited from the violence and took no action to stop it, satisfying Canada’s definition of subversion under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
Justice Ngo ruled that, under paragraph 34(1)(f) of the IRPA, mere membership of an organisation linked to terrorism or democratic subversion is enough to trigger inadmissibility, even without evidence of personal involvement in criminal acts.
PDP: ‘Misinformed, biased, and lacking evidence’
PDP Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, condemned the classification, describing it as “misinformed, biased, and lacking evidence.”
“Nigeria and Canada are both democracies. There’s nothing on record to show that even the malfunctioning APC is a terrorist organisation, let alone the PDP, which is a credible institution,” Osadolor told Vanguard. “If they wanted to say some individuals in the APC government have ties to terrorism, they might have a case — but labelling an entire political party is wrong.”
APC: ‘No jurisdiction, no legitimacy from a foreign bench’
APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, dismissed the ruling as “a baseless, ignorant verdict from a foreign bench with no jurisdiction.”
Speaking to The Nation, he argued: “The court has no authority to determine the status of a Nigerian-recognised political party. This was clearly a narrow decision tied to an asylum claim. It is unfortunate that unpatriotic Nigerians are willing to drag the country’s name into disrepute before racist judges for personal gain.”
A dangerous precedent — Soneye
Former NNPC spokesperson and political commentator, Olufemi Soneye, warned that the ruling sets a precedent that could influence other Western democracies.
“This undermines the legitimacy of Nigeria’s core democratic institutions. Once such a label is applied, it can be used to silence opposition, suppress political participation, and erode civil liberties,” he said.
Soneye cautioned that the decision could have far-reaching consequences for Nigerians abroad: “Law-abiding youths who have held party membership cards could now face visa denials, asylum rejections, or travel restrictions, not for acts they committed, but for affiliations that were purely civic.”
Leave a Reply