Actor and politician Emeka Ike has threatened legal action against Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, over the alleged exposure of his personal voter information obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal.
Olayinka had recently come under criticism after sharing details said to be extracted from an INEC administrative webpage, which reportedly contained Ike’s voter registration information. The screenshots posted on X on May 30 included sensitive data such as his voter identification number, registration centre, application details, profile picture and registration history.
Reacting during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, Ike described the publication of his personal details as “shocking” and an abuse of office.
“It’s quite shocking, extreme and it is the height of political rascality for government officer to access a citizen’s information from the INEC cyber. It tells you a lot, shows how much impunity we have flying around there and people have access to the things they shouldn’t be having access to and that’s quite deplorable and I see that as a huge insult and slap on every political party and every Nigerian.
“He is telling every Nigerian that whoever you are, I can pull your information from anywhere and I can do what I want and that rascality needs to be stopped,” he said.
The actor said he was prepared to take legal steps to address the alleged privacy breach, insisting that his personal data had no place in the public domain.
“Actions are ready. I’m ready to take him on. He has no right to exploit my privacy and insult Nigerians the way he did,” he said.
“If he has been doing it in the past, this should be the last time he does it.”
Ike, who contested the House of Representatives seat for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency under the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) in the last election but lost, also explained why he entered the race in the FCT rather than his home state.
He said the decision followed appeals from residents who encouraged him to participate in politics in Abuja, adding that he initially intended to run in his home state before shifting focus.
“I actually wanted to run in my state but a couple of people came to me, it was like a clarion call. People came to me and told me, ‘sir, you need to do this now, we need you in Abuja’.
“And I’m like you know I’m already trying to run in my state, but they insisted and the surge was high and I considered it seeing the relevant issues they brought on board and I said okay fine let’s see how we can build Abuja. A municipal area needs to be properly guarded and looked into, so I decided to shift to Abuja,” Ike said.
