OTTAWA — In a precedent-setting judgment, the Federal Court of Canada has upheld a ruling that designates Nigeria’s two dominant political parties — the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — as terrorist organisations under Canadian law, while denying asylum to a former member over his decade-long affiliation with both parties.
Justice Phuong Ngo, in a decision delivered on June 17, 2025, dismissed the application for judicial review filed by Douglas Egharevba, who sought to overturn a previous ruling by the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) that declared him inadmissible under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness had argued that both parties were implicated in political violence, democratic subversion, and electoral bloodshed in Nigeria.
Court records revealed that Egharevba was a PDP member from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC, where he remained until 2017. Upon arriving in Canada later that year, he disclosed his political affiliations, which were flagged by immigration officials citing intelligence reports linking both parties to politically motivated killings and election-related violence.
The IAD’s decision focused heavily on the PDP’s alleged conduct during the 2003 state elections and 2004 local government polls, where ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and killings of opposition supporters reportedly took place. The tribunal concluded that party leaders benefited from the violence and failed to act, meeting Canada’s legal threshold for “subversion” under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the IRPA.
Justice Ngo affirmed that under paragraph 34(1)(f) of the Act, mere membership in an organisation linked to terrorism or democratic subversion is enough to warrant inadmissibility — even without proof of direct participation in the violence.
Egharevba’s argument that such violence was common across Nigerian politics was rejected. The court ruled that even flawed Nigerian elections are recognised as a democratic process under Canadian law, and undermining them qualifies as subversion.
The ruling effectively ends Egharevba’s asylum bid, paving the way for his deportation from Canada.
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