The Federal Court of Canada has upheld a ruling that Nigeria’s two dominant political parties—the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC)—have engaged in conduct amounting to terrorism and subversion of democracy.
The decision, delivered on June 17, 2025, by Justice Phuong T.V. Ngo, dismissed the asylum request of Douglas Egharevba, a Nigerian politician who admitted being a PDP member for eight years before defecting to the APC, where he stayed until 2017.
Canada’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) found that both parties were deeply implicated in political violence, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and politically motivated killings. The PDP, the court noted, was responsible for the majority of such acts during its 16 years in power, especially in the 2003 and 2004 elections.
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Quoting the IAD’s findings, Justice Ngo ruled that the violence was “too widespread and persistent… to dissociate the leadership of the party from their actions” and met the Canadian legal definition of terrorism, as it sought to “intimidate the public… for a political objective.”
Egharevba argued that he had never personally engaged in violence and that political unrest was endemic across all Nigerian parties. The court rejected this, stressing that under paragraph 34(1)(f) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, mere membership in an organization linked to terrorism or democratic subversion is sufficient grounds for inadmissibility.
Justice Ngo also dismissed Egharevba’s claim that Nigerian elections were too flawed to qualify as democratic, affirming that even imperfect polls are democratic processes under Canadian law, and undermining them constitutes subversion.
The ruling, which the court described as “transparent, intelligible, and justifiable,” leaves Egharevba’s asylum bid effectively over, with deportation now expected.
It stands as one of the strongest foreign judicial statements linking Nigeria’s main political parties to systemic violence and democratic sabotage.
