Actor files suit in Abuja after voter details surfaced online; INEC blames insider misuse as police probe deepens.

Nollywood actor Emeka Ike has taken legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over an alleged breach of his personal data, demanding N10 billion in damages.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1272/2026, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday, June 15.

The case stems from a May incident in which Olayinka posted screenshots on X (formerly Twitter) revealing details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo State to Abuja. The post raised questions about the actor’s eligibility to contest a House of Representatives seat in the capital following his participation in party primaries.

The information shared appeared to originate from a restricted administrative portal of INEC, triggering public backlash and concerns over possible unauthorised access to sensitive electoral data.

Many Nigerians accused Olayinka of accessing a password-protected backend system reserved strictly for electoral officials.

INEC, however, denied any external breach or hacking of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database. The commission maintained that the incident resulted from the misuse of legitimate internal credentials by authorised personnel, rather than a systemic compromise.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Force Intelligence Department’s Intelligence Response Team (FID-IRT) have questioned Olayinka and an electoral officer as part of an ongoing probe into how the voter data was leaked from the INEC portal.