Wike’s aide has no right to expose my privacy – Emeka Ike fumes, reveals next action

Actor Emeka Ike has condemned Lere Olayinka, the media aide to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, for allegedly disclosing his personal data obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal.

Speaking on Channels Television’s “The Morning Brief,” Ike said he was prepared to pursue legal action against the minister’s aide.

Ike had previously lost the primaries for the House of Representatives seat representing the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency in the FCT, running under the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC).

Olayinka drew criticism after he posted information about Ike’s voter registration on an INEC administrative webpage. On Saturday, the aide used his X handle to announce that Ike was once a registered voter in Imo State before transferring his registration to the FCT on May 15.

He reportedly attached two images to the post, which many viewers believed contained data extracted from INEC’s administrative login portal. The screenshots reportedly showed Ike’s application number, registration centre, Voter Identification Number (VIN), profile picture, name and date of application.

In response, Ike described the aide’s conduct as “shocking” and “the height of political rascality.” “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,” he said. “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 added, “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 actor also stated that he was ready to challenge Olayinka for exposing his private details to the public. “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,” he said.