Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, has expressed readiness to take legal action against Lere Olayinka, the media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over the unauthorized disclosure of his personal voter data from the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission. Ike, who hails from Imo State, recently contested and lost the primary election for the Abuja Municipal Area Council and Bwari federal constituency under the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress. The controversy began last week when Olayinka faced heavy criticism after sharing what appeared to be the voter information of the actor obtained from an administrative webpage of the electoral umpire.
On his X handle on Saturday, Olayinka wrote: “Emeka Ike was a registered voter in Imo State. He only transferred his INEC Registration to the FCT on May 15, 2026 (15 days ago).
“And he wants to contest for House of Reps in Abuja! Someone who has never voted in the FCT o. What happened to his Imo State? This Obidient people enh!!!”
The social media post included two attached screenshots containing sensitive records derived from the administrative login portal of the commission. The leaked information featured the application number of the actor, his registration centre, his Voter Identification Number, his profile photograph, full name, and the specific date of his application.
Appearing on a Channels Television programme on Sunday morning, Ike strongly condemned the actions of the media aide, describing the development as a gross abuse of privilege. He stated: “It’s quite shocking, extreme, and it is the height of political rascality for a government officer to access a citizen’s information from the INEC cyber. It tells you a lot; it shows how much impunity we have flying around, and people have access to things they shouldn’t be having access to, and that’s quite deplorable. 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.”
The popular actor emphasized his determination to seek redress over the violation of his data privacy, saying: “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. If he has been doing it in the past, this should be the last time he does it.”
Explaining his political trajectory and why he chose to contest for a legislative seat in the nation's capital rather than his home state, Ike added: “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.”
Meanwhile, the electoral umpire has revealed that an internal staff member with legitimate administrative access to its Continuous Voter Registration database is currently at the center of an investigation into the unauthorized leak. In an official press statement released by the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, the commission stated that the Department of State Services has initiated a parallel independent probe into the data breach. The internal audit trail of the electoral body indicated that the source of the leak was internal rather than an external cyberattack.
Detailing the preliminary outcomes of their internal investigation, Haruna stated: “Preliminary findings from the commission’s audit trail so far indicate that there was no external breach of the CVR database, no hacking incident, and no unauthorised external access to the Commission’s ICT infrastructure.
“Rather, the information in question was accessed through valid user credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise but released without authority.”
The commission clarified that registration officials managing the nationwide exercise were granted controlled entry to specific components of the CVR system to register new applicants, process transfer requests, and update voter parameters. This access was strictly limited to official duties and scheduled for withdrawal at the end of the exercise.
The commission noted that its internal audit trail has successfully pinpointed the particular user account through which the voter record was fetched. The relevant personnel have been cross-examined, and all departments connected to the incident are cooperating fully with investigators. The electoral body added that it is scrutinizing the technical, administrative, and operational components of the system to establish accountability and find out if internal access control guidelines were violated. On the scale of the compromise, the commission assured the public that only a single voter record was compromised, meaning the personal information of over 90 million registered voters remains secure and the integrity of the broad infrastructure is intact. It added that it would work with the secret service and ensure that anyone found guilty is prosecuted.
Reacting to the incident, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, warned that the unauthorized exposure of voter details threatens the credibility of the 2027 general elections. In a statement released through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice President argued that the development highlights the vulnerability of the electoral systems of the country to political manipulation ahead of the upcoming polls. Atiku maintained that the absence of a cyber hack does not lessen the severity of the matter, raising serious concerns regarding institutional safeguards and internal control guidelines.
Atiku noted: “INEC has now confirmed that voter information was accessed through credentials assigned to personnel involved in the ongoing CVR exercise and released without authority. That admission alone should concern every Nigerian.”
The former Vice President expressed worry that the personal data was released publicly by Olayinka shortly after Wike made predictions about the electoral prospects of opposition candidates in Rivers State. Atiku demanded full disclosure of the chain of custody regarding the retrieved data and urged complete transparency in the ongoing investigations by both the commission and the secret service to protect public confidence in the democratic process.
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