ABUJA—A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 2, for further mention of a N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit instituted by Nollywood actor and politician, Emeka Ike, against the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Lere Olayinka, over an alleged breach of personal data.
Justice Salim Ibrahim adjourned the matter after counsel to the applicant, Mr. Leonard Adeh, sought more time to enable the respondents to file their responses to the suit.
Ike had dragged Olayinka and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court, alleging a violation of his constitutional right to privacy following the publication of his voter registration details on social media.
At the resumed proceedings, yesterday, only the applicant’s counsel was present in court. Adeh informed the court that the matter was slated for mention but disclosed that the respondents were only served with court processes on Wednesday.
According to him, he needed clarification on the nature of service effected on the 1st respondent to avoid any jurisdictional issues that could arise later in the proceedings.
Following the request, Justice Ibrahim directed court officials to make available the proof of service contained in the court record.
After examining the documents, Adeh expressed satisfaction and noted that both respondents were still within the period allowed by law to file their defence.
The court subsequently adjourned the matter till July 2 and ordered that hearing notices be issued and served on the respondents.
The suit stems from a social media post allegedly made by Olayinka in May, in which he published details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo State to the FCT.
Ike, who contested the primary election for the Abuja Municipal Area Council/Bwari Federal Constituency House of Representatives ticket of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, for the 2027 general elections, alleged that the publication exposed confidential information contained in INEC’s voter database. The post reportedly generated widespread reactions, with allegations that the information was obtained from INEC’s restricted backend portal.
While INEC denied any external hacking of its Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, database, the electoral body stated that the disclosure resulted from the misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
The controversy also prompted an investigation by the Force Intelligence Department–Intelligence Response Team, FID-IRT, which reportedly invited Olayinka and an electoral officer for questioning over the alleged leak.
In the suit, Ike is seeking, among other reliefs, a declaration that Olayinka’s publication of his voter information on X, formerly Twitter, without his consent amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental right to privacy and protection of personal data as guaranteed under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
