Nigeria’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned a Canadian court ruling that classified both the PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as terrorist organisations under Canadian law.
In a statement on Friday, the opposition party described the verdict as “misinformed, biased, and lacking evidence,” and urged it be “dismissed outright.” The ruling, delivered by Justice Phuong Ngo on June 17, 2025, upheld a decision by Canada’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) denying asylum to Douglas Egharevba, a former member of both parties, on the grounds that their activities met Canada’s legal definitions of subversion and terrorism.
The IAD had cited intelligence reports alleging that the PDP and APC were implicated in electoral violence and politically motivated killings, pointing to incidents during the 2003 state and 2004 local elections. Justice Ngo found that even without proof of personal involvement, membership in such organisations could trigger inadmissibility under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
PDP Deputy National Youth Leader Timothy Osadolor called the judgment “unfounded and unjustified,” warning it undermined both Nigeria’s democracy and Canada’s credibility. “There’s nothing to show that either the PDP or even the malfunctioning APC is a terrorist organisation,” he said, adding that any wrongdoing should be addressed at the individual level, not through blanket labelling of political parties.
Former NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye described the decision as a “political earthquake” with far-reaching consequences, warning that the precedent could be used globally to delegitimise mainstream political movements. “Once such a label is applied, it can be wielded to silence opposition, suppress political participation, and erode civil liberties,” he said.
Diplomatically, the move risks straining Canada–Nigeria relations and could lead to visa denials or asylum rejections for Nigerians with party affiliations, Soneye added. “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.”
