A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, J.S. Okutepa, has weighed in firmly in support of a landmark Canadian court decision that classified Nigeria’s two major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as terrorist organisations, in the context of an asylum case. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in electoral jurisprudence, Okutepa, SAN asserted that the court’s characterisation was “absolutely correct”, arguing that the actions of many Nigerian politicians go beyond democratic competition into the realm of political terrorism.
The Canadian Federal Court, in a judgement delivered on June 17, 2025, upheld a decision by Canada’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) which denied asylum to Douglas Egharevba, a former member of both the PDP and APC, on the grounds that mere affiliation with parties linked to political violence and subversion, meets the threshold of inadmissibility under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The court cited evidence of ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation, and politically motivated killings tied to the PDP’s conduct in the 2003 State elections and 2004 local polls
Okutepa, SAN, drawing from his own experience in electoral law, argued that the ruling resonates with the harsh realities of Nigerian politics.