INEC absent as court adjourns Emeka Ike’s N10bn privacy suit

A Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned the N10bn fundamental rights suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against the Independent National Electoral Commission and Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Justice S.O. Ibrahim adjourned the matter until July 22 for further mention after INEC failed to appear in court.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, centres on allegations that Ike’s voter registration details were unlawfully disclosed on Olayinka’s official X handle.

When the case came up, counsel to the plaintiff, L.T. Adeh, informed the court that the first respondent had served its response to the suit.

Adeh also said hearing notices had been served on both respondents, but noted that INEC was absent.

He asked the court for an adjournment to allow the electoral body to appear.

Counsel to the first respondent, Akpama Ekwe, did not oppose the application, but told the court he was ready to proceed with the matter.

Adeh further told the court that he would file his response to the first respondent’s counter-affidavit between Thursday and Friday.

Justice Ibrahim said he would grant a short adjournment in the interest of fair hearing and to allow INEC participate in the proceedings.

Ekwe, however, urged the court to fix the matter for hearing, arguing that INEC could not be compelled to appear.

The judge maintained that the adjournment was necessary to give the second respondent an opportunity to appear.

He subsequently adjourned the case until July 22 and ordered that INEC be served with the hearing notice and all processes filed in the suit before the next date.

The case followed the publication of screenshots showing the transfer of Ike’s voter registration from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.

Ike alleged that the information was published by Olayinka without his consent after being accessed from a restricted INEC administrative portal.

The actor is demanding N10bn in damages for alleged breach of his right to privacy.

He is also asking the court to order the removal of the social media post and compel a public apology.

INEC had earlier maintained that the incident was not the result of a cyberattack on its database, but a case of misuse of authorised internal access credentials.

Speaking after the hearing, Ekwe dismissed the plaintiff’s evidence as inadmissible and insisted that his client had not breached any law.

He said INEC had already issued a statement that there was no breach of its servers.

“There is no case against my client,” Ekwe said.

“What my client published, apart from being in the public domain, does not contain any personal information. The only thing that document contained is the name of Emeka Ike and the transfer number. The second document contained his passport photograph and his name.

“So you will agree with me that there was no personal data that was published as is alleged. So there is actually no case against my client.”

But Adeh insisted that INEC had no defence in the matter, suggesting that the commission’s absence from court showed it was avoiding the case.

He said the matter could set an important precedent on the protection of voters’ data in Nigeria.

According to him, if Ike’s details could be accessed, other voters’ records may also be vulnerable.

“It is very possible that whoever accessed this thing must have also been able to access other records. So it is not just Emeka Ike,” Adeh said.

“But we want to use Emeka Ike’s issue and also ensure that this kind of thing is put in check. I think this is going to be a very interesting case, and we hope that the court will do justice.”

The case will now continue on July 22, when the court expects INEC to appear and respond to the allegations.