By John Azu
A Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned proceedings in the N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Justice S.O. Ibrahim fixed July 22 for further mention of the case after INEC failed to appear in court on Thursday.
During the proceedings, Ike’s counsel, L.T. Adeh, informed the court that Olayinka had filed a response to the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, and requested time to file a reply. He also noted that INEC, the second respondent, was absent.
Counsel to Olayinka, Akpama Ekwe, said he was ready to proceed and did not oppose Adeh’s request for time. However, he urged the court to fix the matter for hearing, arguing that INEC could not be compelled to appear.
Justice Ibrahim declined the request, stating that a short adjournment was necessary in the interest of fair hearing and to give INEC the opportunity to participate in the proceedings.
The court subsequently adjourned the matter until July 22 for further mention and ordered that INEC be served with a hearing notice along with all processes filed in the suit before the next adjourned date.
Ike instituted the action after his personal voter registration details were published on Olayinka’s verified X account. The post included screenshots showing the transfer of the actor’s voter registration from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory.
The actor alleges that the information was disclosed without his consent and was unlawfully obtained from a restricted INEC administrative portal, constituting a violation of his constitutional right to privacy.
In the suit, Ike is seeking N10 billion in damages, an order directing the deletion of the social media post, and a public apology from the respondents.
INEC has maintained that the disclosure did not result from a cyberattack on its database but was caused by the misuse of authorised internal access credentials.