A Federal High Court located in Abuja has scheduled July 2 for the next hearing of a N10 billion lawsuit filed by actor and politician Emeka Ike. The case targets Lere Olayinka, an aide to the FCT Minister, regarding claims of personal data misuse.
Justice Salim Ibrahim postponed the proceedings after legal counsel Leonard Adeh, representing Ike, requested additional time for the respondents to submit their formal defenses. The lawsuit centers on allegations that Olayinka and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) violated Ike’s right to privacy by circulating his voter registration details online.
During the recent court session, Adeh verified the proof of service for the respondents. He confirmed that both parties remained within the legal timeframe to provide a response. Consequently, the court ordered that official hearing notices be delivered to the involved parties.
The dispute arose in May when Olayinka posted information concerning Ike’s voter registration transfer. Ike, a prospective candidate for the 2027 general elections, claims the disclosure of his private records—allegedly pulled from an internal INEC portal—endangered his privacy. While INEC denied an external breach of its systems, it acknowledged that the incident involved the unauthorized use of internal credentials. The controversy has already triggered an investigation by the Force Intelligence Department-Intelligence Response Team.
In his legal filing, Ike seeks a formal declaration that the unauthorized publication of his data constitutes a major infringement of his constitutional rights under the 1999 Constitution and the Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023.
