A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a N10 billion fundamental rights suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against Lere Olayinka, an aide
to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the publication of his voter registration details on social media.
Justice Salim Ibrahim dismissed the suit after upholding preliminary objections by the respondents that it was incompetent and improperly constituted. The judge also dismissed the substantive case for lack of proof.
The lawsuit arose from a May publication by Olayinka on his X account, which Ike alleged exposed his confidential voter registration information, including details of the transfer of his voter registration from Imo State to Abuja.
Ike had sought to contest the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat in the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), but lost the party’s primary election.
”For an applicant to succeed in abuse of his fundamental rights he must clearly show how it occured,” the judge said in his verdict. Justice Salim said the applicant has the burden to prove with strong and convincing evidence to support his assertion, but failed to do so.
Justice Salim further held that “The alleged data breach is not incidental to abuse of his (Emeka Ike’s) fundamental human rights.” He further says, “the issue of breach of data privacy will not be properly dealt with under fundamental rights enforcement.”
The judge continued: “On the process filed on behalf of the applicant, I have not seen any of his inalienable right of privacy that has been breached. The applicant filed this action via fundamental right enforcement, but all this argument relates to breach of his data, information and data protection. The applicant’s claim would have been perfectly accommodated under the Data Protection Act 2023 based on his claims and argument.”
On Emeka Ike’s demand of N10billion in damages, the judge said, “Once injury and loss have not been proved, then damages cannot be awarded. Therefore, the issue of damages goes to no issue.
”The applicant seeks the sum of 10 billion, but the issue of data protection which the applicant brings displayed through the Nigerian Data Protection Act only provide the sum of 10 million Naira or 2% of the organization’s annual gross revenue of the preceding year,” the judge added.
The actor had sought a declaration that INEC had a statutory duty to protect voters’ personal information against unauthorised access.
He asked the court to award him N10 billion in general and aggravated damages against the two respondents, jointly and severally.
Other reliefs sought included an order directing Olayinka to remove the disputed publication from his X account, tender a written apology and a declaration that INEC’s June 2 press statement in response to the controversy amounted to an admission of liability.
Meanwhile, Emeka Ike’s lawyer, Leonard Adeh has indicated that Wednesday’s judgment would be appealed.
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