Court delays Emeka Ike's N10 billion case against INEC and Wike's aide

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday postponed the case for further mention until July 22. This is in relation to the N10 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Nollywood actor Emeka Ike against the Independent National Electoral Commission and Lere Olayinka, who is a media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

When the case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, came up before Justice S.O. Ibrahim on Wednesday, L.T. Adeh, the plaintiff's lawyer, told the court that the first respondent had sent its response to the suit.

Adeh also said that hearing notices had been delivered to both respondents. But he pointed out that INEC, the second respondent, was not present. He asked the court to postpone the case to allow INEC to attend.

Akpama Ekwe, the lawyer for the first respondent, did not object to the adjournment request but said he was ready to move forward with the case.

The plaintiff's lawyer further mentioned that he would file his response to the first respondent’s counter-affidavit between Thursday and Friday. Justice Ibrahim agreed to a short adjournment to ensure fair hearing and to give INEC a chance to be present in court.

Ekwe, however, pushed for the court to hear the matter, arguing that INEC could not be forced to show up. The judge maintained that the short adjournment was to allow the second respondent to be part of the proceedings.

The case was then adjourned until July 22 for further mention. The court also instructed that INEC be served with the hearing notice and all documents filed in the suit before the next adjournment date.

This suit arose from claims that Ike’s voter registration details were wrongly disclosed on Olayinka's official X handle. Screenshots showing the transfer of Ike's voter registration from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory appeared on social media.

Ike argues that Olayinka published this information without his permission. He alleges that it was accessed from a restricted INEC administrative portal.

In the suit, Ike is asking for N10 billion in damages for what he says is a violation of his privacy rights. He also wants the court to order the removal of the social media post and a public apology.

INEC, on its part, has stated that the incident was not due to a cyberattack on its database. They say it resulted from the misuse of authorized internal access credentials.

After the hearing, Ekwe told reporters that the evidence presented by the plaintiff was 'inadmissible'. He said his client did not break any law or commit any offense. He added that INEC had released a statement confirming there was no breach of its servers.

“There is no case against my client. What my client published is already public information and does not include any personal data. The documents only had Emeka Ike’s name and the transfer number. One document had his passport photograph and his name.

“So you can see that there was no personal information published as claimed. So really, there is no case against my client,” he said.

Meanwhile, Adeh expressed that he believes INEC “has no defense in this matter,” which is why they keep avoiding it. He showed confidence in Ike's claim and said this case could set a precedent to stop future breaches of voter data. He added that Ike was generous to only ask for N10 billion.

“It is likely that whoever accessed this information might have been able to access other records too. So it is not just about Emeka Ike. But we want to use Emeka Ike’s situation to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. I think this will be an interesting case and we hope the court delivers justice,” he stated.