Did Canadian Court Declare APC Terrorist Organisation? Ruling Govt Speaks
- The ruling APC said the court did not make a declaration, pronouncing it an outlawed group
- APC was formed on February 6, 2013, through a merger of several opposition political parties
- The party urged its party faithful, supporters, and all Nigerians to disregard the viral report
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering politics, elections, and governance in Nigeria.
FCT, Abuja - The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday, August 14, said no Canadian court declared it a terrorist organisation.
In a statement released by Barrister Felix Morka, its national spokesperson, the ruling party asked its members and Nigerians to disregard the reports as "false and misleading".
Source: Twitter
APC clears air on viral report
The June 17, 2025 judgment by Justice Phuong Ngo upheld an earlier decision of the Immigration Appeal Division denying asylum to Nigerian national Douglas Egharevba over his decade-long affiliation with the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recent media reports indicated.
Court records show Egharevba was a PDP member from 1999 to 2007 before joining the APC until 2017, when he relocated to Canada and disclosed his political history.
According to Canadian court filings, the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness argued that the two parties were implicated in political violence, democratic subversion, and electoral bloodshed — citing, among other incidents, the PDP’s alleged conduct in the 2003 state elections and 2004 local government polls, which reportedly involved ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and the killing of opposition supporters.
The IAD concluded that party leadership benefited from the violence and took no action to stop it, meeting Canada’s legal definition of subversion under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
Justice Ngo affirmed that under paragraph 34(1)(f) of the IRPA, “mere membership of an organisation linked to terrorism or democratic subversion” could trigger inadmissibility — even without proof of personal involvement.
But in its rebuttal, the APC asserted that "clearly, reports that APC was declared as a terrorist organization by the Canadian court in this matter is patently erroneous, if not mischievous."
It said:
"For the avoidance of doubt, we make bold to state that the court never made any determination on the question of terrorism in its decision. In the Judge’s own words: 'Having found that the IAD’s analysis on subversion was reasonable, this is sufficient to dismiss the application for review. I will therefore refrain from anaylyzing the IAD’s findings on terrorism'.”
FG rejects Canadian court judgment
In the same vein, the federal government condemned the ruling by a Federal Court of Canada classifying the APC as terrorist organisation.
Reacting, the Nigerian government rejected the designation.
It called on Canadian authorities to "immediately retract this erroneous designation".
Canadian court's declaration: Soneye reacts
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Olufemi Soneye, a former chief corporate communications officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, decried the dangerous precedent the alleged Canadian court's verdict sets.
Soneye explained that it was a political earthquake with consequences that could reverberate far beyond Canada’s borders, warning that “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.”
Source: Legit.ng
