The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly rejected a ruling by a Federal Court in Canada that classified it and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as terrorist organisations.
Justice Phuong Ngo reportedly issued the ruling on June 17 while denying asylum to Douglas Egharevba over his decade-long affiliation with both political parties. The judge dismissed Egharevba’s application for judicial review after Canada’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) found him inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
According to court records, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness argued that both parties had been linked to political violence, subversion of democracy, and electoral bloodshed in Nigeria. Egharevba was said to have been a PDP member from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC, where he remained until 2017. He moved to Canada in September 2017, declaring his political history during the immigration process.
Canadian immigration authorities reportedly flagged his affiliations, citing intelligence reports linking both parties to electoral violence and politically motivated killings. The IAD’s decision was said to have relied heavily on the PDP’s alleged conduct during the 2003 state elections and 2004 local government polls, which involved ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and the killing of opposition supporters. The tribunal concluded that the party leadership benefited from the violence and failed to act against it meeting Canada’s definition of subversion under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the IRPA.
Justice Ngo ruled that mere membership of an organisation associated with terrorism or democratic subversion is sufficient to trigger inadmissibility under paragraph 34(1)(f) of the IRPA, even without evidence of personal involvement.
Reacting in Abuja yesterday, APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Bashiru condemned the judgment, calling the presiding judge “an ignoramus.” He stressed that the APC is “a credible democratic political organisation” and does not seek legitimacy from “a foreign bench under a law that has no extraterritorial application.”
“The court has no jurisdiction to determine the status of a Nigerian-recognised political party, not to talk of declaring it as a terrorist organisation,” Bashiru stated. “The so-called judgment was obviously delivered from a jaundiced perspective and within the narrow confines of determining eligibility for asylum by an applicant.”
Bashiru further expressed regret that “some desperate and unpatriotic Nigerians will allow the name of the country to be brought to unpalatable commentary by racist judges on account of self-contrived applications for asylum.”
