Nollywood actor Emeka Ike on Monday June 15, filed a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, over breach of personal data.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday, June 15.
In May, Olayinka shared screenshots, showing details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.
The FCT minister’s aide posted the information, which was obtained from a restricted INEC administrative portal, while questioning the actor’s eligibility to contest a House of Representatives seat in Abuja.
The post sparked public outrage, with many Nigerians accusing Olayinka of accessing a password-protected INEC database not meant for public use.
Subsequently, INEC dismissed claims of a major data breach or external hacking of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database, attributing the disclosure to misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
Investigators from the Force Intelligence Department–Intelligence Response Team (FID-IRT) also questioned Olayinka and an electoral officer over the leak.
In the suit, Ike, through his counsel Leonard Adeh, asked the court to declare that the publication of his voter information without consent amounts to a violation of his fundamental right to privacy and data protection.
He further argued that 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 guarantee the protection of personal data.
The actor also asked the court to hold INEC responsible for failing in its duty of care to secure voters’ personal information.
He is also seeking N10 billion in damages against INEC and Olayinka for breach of his fundamental right to privacy.
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