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By Lawrence Agbo
The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned until July 2 the hearing of a N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor and politician Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, a senior special assistant to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Justice Salim Ibrahim fixed the date on Thursday after Ike’s counsel, Leonard Adeh, sought an adjournment to allow the respondents file their defence.
Ike is challenging the alleged disclosure of his voter registration information on social media, which he said amounted to a violation of his right to privacy and protection of personal data.
When the matter was called, Adeh told the court that the respondents had only been served with the court processes a day earlier.
“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.
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Justice Ibrahim thereafter adjourned the matter until July 2 for further mention and ordered that hearing notices be served on the respondents.
Ike instituted the suit after Olayinka allegedly published screenshots of his voter registration details on X in May.
The actor, who contested for the Nigeria Democratic Congress ticket for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency ahead of the 2027 general election, alleged that the information showed his voter registration transfer from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.
He claimed the details were obtained from INEC’s restricted backend portal and used to question his eligibility to contest the election.
In the suit, Ike asked the court to declare that Olayinka’s alleged publication of his data without consent “amounts to gross breach and violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data.”
He is seeking N10 billion as aggravated and general damages from Olayinka and INEC, jointly and severally.
The actor also asked the court to compel Olayinka to delete the post and publish an apology on his X handle.
Ike further argued that INEC owed him and other registered voters a statutory duty to protect their personal information from unauthorised access.
INEC had earlier said the incident was not caused by external hacking of its Continuous Voter Registration database, but resulted from the alleged misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
