Nigeria’s two major political parties — the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) — have strongly condemned a ruling by the Federal Court of Canada which classified both as terrorist organisations.
The June 17, 2025 judgment, delivered by Justice Phuong Ngo, upheld an earlier decision of the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) denying asylum to Nigerian national Douglas Egharevba due to his long-term membership in the PDP and APC.
According to court records, Egharevba was a PDP member from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC until 2017, when he migrated to Canada. Canadian court filings indicate that the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness argued that both parties were linked to political violence, electoral malpractice, and democratic subversion — citing alleged incidents from the 2003 and 2004 elections, which reportedly involved ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and killings of opposition supporters.
The IAD ruled that party leadership benefited from the violence and took no steps to prevent it, meeting Canada’s legal threshold for subversion under its Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). Justice Ngo affirmed that under the IRPA, mere membership in an organisation linked to terrorism or subversion could trigger inadmissibility, even without proof of direct involvement.
PDP: ‘Misinformed, Biased, and Without Evidence’
Reacting in a statement to Hobnob News, PDP Deputy National Youth Leader Timothy Osadolor described the ruling as “misinformed, biased, and lacking evidence.
“Nigeria and Canada are both democracies. Freedom of speech is essential, but it must be exercised responsibly,” Osadolor said. “There is nothing — not even against the malfunctioning APC — to justify branding an entire political party as a terrorist organisation. If individuals have links to terrorism, then those individuals should be named, not entire parties.”
Former NNPC spokesperson Olufemi Soneye also warned that the decision could set a troubling precedent for global politics: “If democratic nations don’t push back on this kind of overreach, they may one day find their own politics on trial in a foreign court.”
He cautioned that the classification could result in visa denials, asylum rejections, and broader reputational damage for Nigerian politics internationally.
APC: ‘No Jurisdiction, No Legitimacy’
APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Bashiru dismissed the ruling outright, describing the presiding judge as “an ignoramus” and insisting the party remained “a credible democratic political organisation.”
“The court has no jurisdiction to determine the status of a Nigerian political party, let alone declare it a terrorist organisation,” Bashiru said. “This judgment was delivered from a narrow and biased perspective focused solely on an asylum application. We do not seek legitimacy from a foreign bench or a law without extraterritorial application.”
Both the PDP and APC have urged Canadian authorities to pursue individual accountability rather than sweeping political classifications, warning that such rulings risk harming diplomatic ties and distorting Nigeria’s democratic image abroad.
