Canada Court Upholds Ruling Declaring Nigeria’s APC, PDP Terrorist Organisations
The Federal Court of Canada has upheld a landmark immigration tribunal decision declaring Nigeria’s two dominant political parties — the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — as terrorist organisations. The ruling also rejected the asylum appeal of former member Douglas Egharevba over his decade-long affiliation with both parties. Justice Phuong Ngo delivered the judgment on June 17, 2025, dismissing Egharevba’s application for judicial review after Canada’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) found him inadmissible under security provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
Canadian authorities argued that the APC and PDP were deeply implicated in political violence, electoral bloodshed, and the subversion of democracy in Nigeria. Egharevba, who joined the PDP at its founding in 1999 before defecting to the APC in 2007 and remaining until 2017, claimed he had no personal record of violence. However, Justice Ngo ruled that widespread and persistent violence by party members and leaders could not be dissociated from the party leadership itself.
Court documents revealed that Egharevba entered Canada in 2017, disclosing his political history to immigration officials. Intelligence and international reports linked both parties to politically motivated killings and electoral malpractice. The IAD focused on the PDP’s record during the 2003 and 2004 elections, citing ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and killings of opposition supporters under the leadership of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
The tribunal concluded that the PDP’s actions met Canada’s definition of subversion of a democratic process under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the IRPA, which covers illicit means of achieving political change. Justice Ngo also reaffirmed Canada’s broad interpretation of “membership” in a proscribed organisation, stating that mere membership during violent periods is sufficient for inadmissibility — even without evidence of personal complicity or criminal activity.
Egharevba’s defence that violence was endemic across Nigerian politics and that flawed elections could not be considered democratic under Canadian standards was dismissed. The court maintained that even imperfect elections constitute a democratic process, and undermining them for political gain amounts to subversion.
With the Federal Court’s decision, Egharevba’s asylum claim has effectively collapsed, paving the way for deportation proceedings. The ruling marks one of the clearest foreign judicial pronouncements equating Nigeria’s ruling and former ruling parties with terrorist entities under international law.
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