The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a N10 billion fundamental rights suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the publication of his voter registration details on social media.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, upheld preliminary objections by the respondents, ruling that the suit was incompetent and improperly constituted. The judge also dismissed the substantive case for lack of proof.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ike had approached the court after Olayinka allegedly published details of his voter registration transfer from Imo State to Abuja on his X handle in May, an incident the actor claimed violated his right to privacy and protection of personal data.
Ike, who sought to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives in the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), had lost in the party’s primary election.
In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026 and filed by his lawyer, L. T. Adeh, the actor sued Olayinka and INEC as the first and second respondents, respectively.
He asked the court to declare that Olayinka’s publication of his personal information on X without his consent “amounts to gross breach and violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data”.
Ike relied on Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Sections 24 and 39 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, arguing that the provisions guaranteed his right to privacy and protection of personal data.
He also sought a declaration that INEC owed him and other registered voters a “statutory duty of care” to protect their personal information from unauthorised access.
The actor asked the court to award him N10 billion in aggravated and general damages against Olayinka and INEC, jointly and severally, for the alleged violation of his fundamental rights.
He further sought a declaration that INEC’s June 2 press release responding to the circulation of his voter information amounted to a tacit admission of guilt and liability.
Among his other requests were an order directing Olayinka to remove the allegedly offensive publication from his X account, @OlayinkaLere, and a written apology for the alleged breach of his privacy.
However, both respondents urged the court to dismiss the suit in separate counter-affidavits.
INEC maintained that the information at the centre of the dispute was neither classified, sensitive nor confidential, arguing that its display and publication were authorised by the Electoral Act, 2026.
In a counter-affidavit deposed to by Anthonia Makwe, an Assistant Director and Data Protection Officer in the commission’s Legal Drafting and Clearance Department, INEC said it had “statutory and constitutional power to make available information of its voters to the general public without the consent of any registered voter.”
The commission said its statutory responsibilities included the compilation, maintenance, display, publication, certification and management of the voters’ register in accordance with the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the Electoral Act, 2026, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
INEC also denied that the information allegedly published by Olayinka originated from its commission.
“The 2nd respondent, as a data controller, has never breached its statutory duty of care, custody and protection of personal voter information and data; it owes the applicant and other voters under its secured portal and restricted database,” the commission stated.
Olayinka, in his counter-affidavit, described the reliefs sought by Ike as being made in bad faith, insisting that the document he published contained only the actor’s name and passport photograph, which he said were already in the public domain.
He denied obtaining the information through unlawful means and argued that he owed Ike no duty of confidentiality or care requiring him to seek consent before publishing information already publicly accessible.
Olayinka further argued that Ike, having presented himself to the public as a candidate for election and as a Nollywood actor, could not claim to have been traumatised by the circulation of his name and passport photograph.
He also cited Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026, arguing that INEC was required to publish information in the voters’ register no later than 90 days before a general election.
According to Olayinka, the publication was made after Ike allegedly led a group of hoodlums to the INEC office to disrupt the commission’s activities shortly after announcing his intention to contest the election.
He said the post was intended to remind Ike that he had recently transferred his voter registration area and to draw public attention to the relevant electoral provisions to prevent a breach of the law.
Olayinka also relied on INEC’s press release, which he said stated that “there was no external breach of its CVR database, no hacking incident and no unauthorised external access to the commissions ICT infrastructure.”
He argued that the alleged injury suffered by Ike was not caused by him, adding that he was not a data controller under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, and had no obligation to safeguard the actor’s documents.
Rejecting the N10 billion claim, Olayinka described the reliefs sought as being in bad faith and “an indication that the applicant is a gold digger who wants to reap where he did not sow.”
He insisted that he could not be ordered to pay damages for information that was already publicly accessible and urged the court to dismiss the suit in the interest of justice.
The court subsequently dismissed the suit, upholding the respondents’ preliminary objections and finding that the substantive claims had not been proved.
