Actor Emeka Ike loses N10bn lawsuit against Wike’s aide, INEC

The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the N10 billion fundamental rights suit filed by Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a judgement delivered on Wednesday, Justice Salim Ibrahim upheld the preliminary objections of the respondents, ruling that the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026 was incompetent and improperly constituted.

He also dismissed the substantive suit for lack of proof.

Ike, who aspired to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives for the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), had lost in the party primary.

In May, Olayinka was alleged to have mocked Ike on his X handle by publishing his voter registration details, including details of his transfer of voter registration from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.

In the suit filed through his lawyer, L.T. Adeh, Ike asked the court to declare that Olayinka’s publication of his voter details without his consent “amounts to gross breach and violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data.”

He 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.

He also asked the court to declare that INEC owes him and other voters a statutory duty to protect their private data against unauthorised access, and sought N10 billion in aggravated and general damages against Olayinka and INEC jointly and severally.

In their defence, Olayinka argued that the document he published contained only Ike’s name and passport photograph which were already in the public domain, while INEC said the information was not classified or confidential and that there was no external breach of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database.

The court held that Ike failed to prove how his rights were violated and dismissed the suit.