A lawyer, Victor Giwa, has said that the recent judgment by a Canadian court, which tagged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as terrorist organisations, was in line with the country’s criminal law.

Giwa, who spoke on Channels TV’s The Morning Brief on Monday, said that the Canadian court did not call the parties terrorist organisations but said that they were like a terrorist organisation.

The lawyer explained, “The Canadian Federal Court in June made the pronouncement that the PDP is like a terrorist organisation, not that they have been declared a terrorist organisation. We need to put it in perspective.

“Now, in the Canadian law, under the Canadian Criminal Code, Section 83, Subsection 01, defines an act of terrorism to be any political, religious, or ideological act that was done with the intention of causing death, serious bodily harm, intimidation, and risk to any life.

“They define such an act of intimidation as any act that will lead to death or serious bodily harm, or can put somebody in threat of death as a terrorist act under the Canadian Criminal Code. So it is based on that.

“They saw the activities of the PDP as, at the time the young man claimed to be a member of the PDP, that the PDP was involved in subversion of the democr’tic structure, intimidation, killing of political opponents’ candidates, and snatching of ballot papers.

“So in all this, looking at the criminal court of Canada, those actions amount to terrorism. So, it is based on the Canadian criminal code that they made that pronouncement because they have to judge him (Douglas) by the law in Canada.”

The lawyer also said that the PDP and the APC could not appeal the judgment because it followed Canada’s criminal code.

Impact Of Electoral Violence On Nigeria’s Image

Giwa also said that judgment showed the impact of electoral violence on Nigeria’s image.

“What it tells us is that as members of political parties, Nigerians should be aware that their activities, the things they do in pursuit of political power — we are in a global village — are in the knowledge of everybody, that people are watching, people are seeing us, and this is one of the implications of some of these activities of our politicians.”

On Friday, August 16, 2025, the Federal Government called on the Canadian authorities to immediately retract what it described as the “erroneous” designation of some political parties in Nigeria as terrorist organisations.

A statement by the Spokesperson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, in Abuja, warned that the action could be misconstrued as endorsing politically motivated narratives against Nigeria.

The declaration by the Canadian court was made in pursuance of a case involving a Nigerian, Douglas Egharevba, who arrived in Canada in September 2017 and applied for inland refugee status under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada.

The statement partly read, “The Federal Government of Nigeria expresses deep concerns over the recent ruling by a Canadian Federal court that erroneously designates certain political parties in Nigeria as ‘terrorist organisations’.

“The declaration was in pursuance of a case involving a Nigerian, Douglas Egharevba, who arrived in Canada in September 2017 and applied for inland refugee status under the immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada.

“A statement by this baseless classification is not only reckless but also constitutes an unacceptable interference in Nigeria’s internal affairs and democratic processes.

“The Court made a sweeping accusation against the entire membership of a political party that has produced three democratically elected presidents, instead of focusing on individuals found wanting. The larger ramification of the decision is that every member of the mentioned political parties is a potential terrorist, and that is completely false and unacceptable.” (Channels TV, excluding headline)