Hearing In Emeka Ike’s N10bn Privacy Lawsuit Against Wike’s Aide, INEC Moved To Later Date
Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed proceedings in a N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor and politician Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Justice Salim Ibrahim adjourned the case until July 2 following a request by Ike’s lawyer, Leonard Adeh, who sought additional time for the respondents to file their responses.
The lawsuit centers on the alleged publication of Ike’s voter registration details on social media, which the actor claims violated his constitutional right to privacy and the protection of his personal data.
During Thursday’s proceedings, Adeh informed the court that the respondents had only been served with the relevant court documents the previous day, necessitating the request for an adjournment.
“My lord, I want to bring to the notice of the court that the bailiff told me that parties were only served yesterday,” he said.
Adeh also requested confirmation of the service effected on Olayinka, saying he wanted to avoid any dispute over the court’s jurisdiction.
“We don’t want to have a jurisdictional issue, my lord,” he said.
After the court made the proof of service available, the lawyer inspected the record and said, “My lord, I am satisfied, sir.”
He then asked for an adjournment, noting that both Olayinka and INEC were still within the period allowed to respond to the suit.
Justice Ibrahim thereafter adjourned the matter until July 2 for further mention and ordered that hearing notices be served on the respondents.
The veteran Actor and politician Ike has filed a lawsuit against Olayinka over the alleged publication of screenshots containing his voter registration details on X in May.
Ike, who sought the Nigeria Democratic Congress ticket for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency ahead of the 2027 general elections, claimed the screenshots revealed that his voter registration had been transferred from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.
According to him, the information was obtained from INEC’s restricted backend portal and was used to challenge his eligibility to contest the election.
In the suit, Ike asked the court to declare that Olayinka’s alleged disclosure of his personal information without consent constituted a serious violation of his fundamental right to privacy and data protection.
He is seeking N10 billion in general and aggravated damages from Olayinka and INEC, jointly and severally.
The actor also requested an order compelling Olayinka to delete the post and issue a public apology on his X account.
Ike further argued that INEC has a legal obligation to safeguard the personal information of registered voters from unauthorised access and misuse.
Earlier, INEC stated that the incident was not the result of external hacking of its Continuous Voter Registration database.
The commission said the breach allegedly occurred through the misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
