Posted by Chinenye on Thu 25th Jun, 2026 - tori.ng
A fresh legal battle is unfolding in Abuja as Nollywood actor-turned-politician Emeka Ike takes on a top aide to the FCT Minister and INEC in a high-stakes lawsuit.
(Emeka Ike. Photo Credit: Channels Tv)
The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 2 for hearing in a N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor and politician Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.
Justice Salim Ibrahim fixed the date on Thursday after Ike's counsel, Leonard Adeh, sought an adjournment to allow the respondents time to file their defence.
Only Adeh was present in court when the matter was called.
He informed the court that the respondents Olayinka and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), listed as 1st and 2nd respondents respectively had only been served the previous day, and sought clarity on the nature of service effected on Olayinka to avoid any jurisdictional complications.
After reviewing the proof of service, Adeh expressed satisfaction and the court adjourned the matter to July 2 for further mention, ordering that hearing notices be issued and served on both respondents.
The suit stems from an incident in May, when Olayinka allegedly published Ike's confidential voter registration details on social media, including screenshots appearing to have been pulled from INEC's restricted backend portal.
The post, which showed details of Ike's voter registration transfer from Imo State to Abuja, was used to question his eligibility to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat for the 2027 elections under the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) a primary he eventually lost.
The publication sparked widespread outrage, with many Nigerians accusing Olayinka of gaining unauthorised access to a password-protected system reserved for INEC officials.
INEC, in response, dismissed claims of a major breach or external hacking of its continuous voter registration database, attributing the disclosure to the misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
Investigators from the Force Intelligence Department's Intelligence Response Team (FID-IRT) subsequently invited both Olayinka and an electoral officer in connection with the alleged leak.
In the suit, Ike asked the court to declare that Olayinka's decision to publish his data on social media without consent amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental right to privacy and personal data protection under 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 sought a declaration that INEC owes him and other voters a statutory duty of care to protect their private data from unauthorised access, and argued that INEC's press release dated June 2 in reaction to the viral publication amounted to a tacit admission of guilt and liability.
Ike is praying the court to award him N10 billion in aggravated and general damages against Olayinka and INEC, to be paid jointly and severally.
He is also seeking an order compelling Olayinka to retract and remove the offending post from his social media handle and publish an unreserved written apology on the same platform.