The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a ₦10 billion suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, a senior aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the alleged publication of his voter registration details on social media.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, upheld the respondents’ preliminary objections, ruling that the suit was incompetent and improperly constituted.
The judge also dismissed the substantive case for lack of proof.
Ike had sued Olayinka and INEC over a post published on X in May, which allegedly contained details of the actor’s transfer of voter registration from Imo State to Abuja.
The actor had sought to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives in the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), but lost the party’s primary election.
In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, Ike alleged that Olayinka violated his fundamental right to privacy by publishing his voter information without his consent.
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, to support his claims.
The actor also asked the court to declare that INEC had a statutory duty to protect the personal information of registered voters against unauthorised access and disclosure.
He further argued that a statement issued by the commission on June 2 in response to the controversy amounted to an admission of liability.
Ike sought an order directing Olayinka to delete the disputed post, retract the publication and issue a written apology.
He also asked the court to award him N10 billion in aggravated and general damages against the two respondents jointly and severally.
INEC, Olayinka Reject Allegations
However, INEC and Olayinka urged the court to dismiss the suit, maintaining that the information published was neither confidential nor unlawfully obtained.
In its counter-affidavit, INEC argued that it had the statutory and constitutional authority to make certain voter information available to the public in accordance with the Electoral Act, 2026.
The commission also maintained that the information in question was not classified or sensitive and that its responsibilities included the compilation, maintenance, display and publication of the register of voters.
Olayinka, in his response, argued that the document he shared contained only Ike’s name and passport photograph, which he claimed were already publicly available.
He maintained that the actor had made his identity public when he announced his intention to contest the election and that the publication was intended to draw attention to his transfer of voter registration and relevant electoral provisions.
Olayinka also denied unlawfully accessing INEC’s database, citing the commission’s June 2 statement, which he said confirmed that its continuous voter registration database had not been externally breached.
The commission had stated that “there was no external breach of its CVR database, no hacking incident and no unauthorised external access to the commissions ICT infrastructure”.
Olayinka further argued that he was not a data controller under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, and therefore had no legal obligation to protect the actor’s information in the manner alleged.
Rejecting the damages claim, he described Ike’s ₦10 billion demand as “an indication that the applicant is a gold digger, who wants to reap where he did not sow”.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit, insisting that he should not be held liable for publishing information he claimed was already in the public domain.
The court subsequently upheld the respondents’ objections and dismissed the suit.
The case has drawn attention to questions surrounding the publication of voter information, the protection of personal data and the extent to which electoral records may be made available to the public.
INEC has maintained that there was no external breach of its voter registration database, while Ike’s suit challenged the publication of his information without his consent.
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