The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a N10 billion go well with filed by Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, in opposition to the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, Lere Olayinka, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the publication of his voter registration particulars.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, upheld the preliminary objections raised by the respondents, holding that the go well with was incompetent and improperly constituted.
The court docket additionally dismissed the substantive go well with for lack of ample proof.
Ike had sued Olayinka and INEC as first and second respondents in go well with No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, alleging that the publication of his voter registration data on X violated his elementary proper to privateness and safety of private knowledge.
The actor, who had sought to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat within the House of Representatives within the 2027 common election on the platform of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), misplaced the celebration’s major.
The dispute arose after Olayinka, in a May put up on X, printed data referring to Ike’s voter registration switch from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.
Ike, by way of his lawyer, L.T. Adeh, argued that the publication was made with out his consent and constituted a breach of Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
He requested the court docket to award him N10 billion in aggravated and common damages in opposition to Olayinka and INEC, collectively and severally.
He additionally sought an order compelling Olayinka to delete the put up, difficulty a written apology and retract the publication containing what he described as his non-public voter data.
Ike additional urged the court docket to declare that INEC owed him and different registered voters a statutory obligation of care to guard their private knowledge from unauthorised entry.
He additionally challenged an INEC assertion issued on June 2 in response to the circulation of his voter data, arguing that the assertion amounted to a tacit admission of legal responsibility.
But INEC and Olayinka urged the court docket to dismiss the go well with, denying any breach of Ike’s privateness rights.
INEC, in its counter-affidavit deposed to by Anthonia Makwe, an Assistant Director and Data Protection Officer in its Legal Drafting and Clearance Department, argued that the knowledge complained of was neither categorised, delicate nor confidential.
The Commission maintained that the publication and show of voter data had been carried out in accordance with the Electoral Act, 2026.
It mentioned it had statutory and constitutional powers to make sure data contained within the voters’ register accessible to the general public with out acquiring the consent of particular person voters.
INEC additionally maintained that the knowledge allegedly printed by Olayinka didn’t emanate from its database and insisted that there had been no breach, hacking or unauthorised exterior entry to its data infrastructure.
Olayinka, in his separate counter-affidavit, described Ike’s claims as being made in dangerous religion.
He argued that the doc he printed contained solely Ike’s identify and passport {photograph}, which he mentioned had been already within the public area.
According to him, the knowledge was not obtained by way of any illegal means, including that he owed Ike no obligation of confidentiality in respect of data already publicly accessible.
Olayinka additional argued that Ike, having offered himself for election and being a public determine, couldn’t fairly declare to have been traumatised by the circulation of his identify and passport {photograph}.
He cited Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which, in response to him, requires INEC to publish the voters’ register not later than 90 days earlier than a common election.
The FCT minister’s aide additionally claimed that the publication was made after Ike allegedly led a gaggle of individuals to an INEC workplace to disrupt its actions shortly after declaring his intention to contest the election.
He mentioned his put up was supposed to attract consideration to Ike’s switch of his voter registration and the related provisions of the legislation.
Olayinka additionally disputed Ike’s declare that INEC had admitted legal responsibility, pointing to the fee’s assertion that there had been no exterior breach of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database, hacking incident or unauthorised entry to its ICT infrastructure.
He maintained that he was not a knowledge controller beneath the Nigeria Data Protection Act and subsequently had no statutory obligation to safeguard Ike’s voter data.
Olayinka consequently urged the court docket to dismiss the go well with, describing the N10 billion damages declare as an try and revenue from data that was already publicly accessible.
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