Despite evidence, Felix Morka says Canadian court never labelled APC terrorist organisation

Felix Morka, spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has debunked reports suggesting that a Canadian court designated the party as a terrorist organisation.

In a statement on Friday, Morka described the claim as “a reckless fabrication”, urging the public to disregard it.

Morka said the report was based on a misrepresentation of a judgement delivered by Phuong Ngo, a judge of the federal court of Canada, on June 17, 2025.

He said the case involved Douglas Egharevba, who had sought a judicial review of a decision by the Canadian Immigration Appeal Division (IAD), which ruled that he was inadmissible to Canada under the country’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

“The Canadian court did not declare APC as a terrorist organisation, contrary to highly erroneous media reports in circulation,” the statement reads.

Morka said the court’s ruling found that Egharevba, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was inadmissible because the party and its members were engaged in acts of subversion against the democratic process.

Quoting the judgement, Morka said the judge noted, “I cannot find the IAD’s conclusion that the elections in question constituted a democratic process or institution and that the PDP, its members and supporters engaged in subversive acts committed against the electoral process for the improper purpose of maintaining political power to be unreasonable.”

He said the only mention of the APC in the entire 16-page judgement is in paragraph four, which outlines the applicant’s political history.

“In that section, the applicant claimed to have been a member of the PDP from December 1999 to December 2007 and a member of the APC from December 2007 to May 2017,” Morka said.

He added that the claim was “evidently false” because the APC was not registered until 2013 and did not exist in 2007.

“To be clear, APC was not in existence as of 2007,” the APC spokesperson 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.”

He said the judge clearly stated, “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 analysing the IAD’s findings on terrorism.”

Morka said it was “patently erroneous, if not mischievous” for anyone to report that APC was declared a terrorist group by the court.

“The court did not make such a declaration and could not have done so as that would be an unjustifiable overreach, and a major breach of fair hearing, among other due process rights, given that APC was not a party to the proceedings,” he said.

“Such a decision would also have been of absolute irrelevance as being made without jurisdiction and of no extraterritorial applicability or significance.”

He urged APC members, supporters and Nigerians to disregard the reports as false and misleading.