The Federal Court of Canada has upheld a ruling that classified Nigeria’s two dominant political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as terrorist organisations, while denying asylum to a former member, Douglas Egharevba, over his decade-long affiliation with both parties.
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In a judgment delivered on June 17, 2025, Justice Phuong Ngo dismissed Egharevba’s application for judicial review after the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) declared him inadmissible under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
According to Peoples Gazette, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness argued that the APC and PDP were implicated in political violence, subversion of democracy, and electoral bloodshed in Nigeria.
Court records showed that Egharevba was a PDP member from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC, where he remained until 2017. He moved to Canada in September 2017 and disclosed his political history during immigration processing.
Canadian authorities flagged his affiliations, citing intelligence reports linking both parties to electoral violence and politically motivated killings. The IAD based its decision largely on the PDP’s conduct during the 2003 state elections and 2004 local government polls, when the party allegedly engaged in ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and killing of opposition supporters.
The tribunal found that the party’s leadership benefited from the violence and failed to stop it, meeting Canada’s legal definition of subversion under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the IRPA.
Justice Ngo ruled that mere membership in an organisation linked to terrorism or democratic subversion is sufficient to trigger inadmissibility under paragraph 34(1)(f) of the IRPA, even without evidence of direct personal involvement.
Egharevba’s claim that political violence was widespread across all Nigerian parties was rejected. The court also held that even flawed Nigerian elections constitute a democratic process under Canadian law, and undermining them amounts to subversion.
The decision effectively ends Egharevba’s asylum bid, with deportation proceedings expected to follow.
TheNigeriaLawyer understands that if this judgment is recognized in European countries and the United States, the leaders of the APC and PDP could be classified and treated as terrorists.
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