Court dismisses Emeka Ike’s N10bn damages go well with in opposition to Wike’s aide and INEC

Justice Salim Ibrahim of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the N10 billion rights go well with filed by actor Emeka Ike in opposition to Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a ruling delivered this morning, Justice Ibrahim upheld the preliminary objections of the respondents on the grounds that the go well with was incompetent and improperly constituted.

Justice Ibrahim additionally dismissed the principle go well with on the bottom of lack of proof.

Emeka Ike, who aspired to vie for the House of Representatives’ seat for AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency, Abuja, for the 2027 basic elections on the platform of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), misplaced the bid in a major ballot.

Olayinka, by way of a submit on X in May, was alleged to have mocked Ike by leaking his confidential voter registration particulars on social media, an motion Ike discovered to be an infringement on his proper and approached the court docket for aid.

In his court docket papers, Ike requested for a declaration that Olayinka’s choice to publish his database on X with out his approval “amounts to gross breach and violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data”.

The actor prayed the court docket to award him N10 billion in opposition to Olayinka and INEC as aggravated and basic damages, to be paid collectively and severally for violating his elementary proper to privateness.

In a separate counter-affidavit, INEC and Olayinka prayed the court docket to dismiss the go well with in its entirety. The electoral physique in its response, stated the difficulty complained about within the go well with filed by Ike was neither categorized, delicate nor confidential data.

On his half, Olayinka, stated the knowledge he printed on X was already within the public area and was not accessed by way of any illegal means.

Olayinka acknowledged that he didn’t owe the actor any obligation of care and confidentiality and didn’t require his consent to publish his identify and passport {photograph} that was already within the public area.