Digital Rights Lawyer Sues To Nullify NDPC’s ‘Confusing’ Guidance On Data Controllers Registration

A digital rights lawyer, Mr. Frank Ijege, has filed a lawsuit challenging the Nigeria Data Protection Commission’s (NDPC) powers to issue the Guidance Notice on Registration of Data Controllers and Data Processors of Major Importance.

The suit, filed at the Kaduna Division of the Federal High Court with the case number FHC/KD/CS/34/2024, seeks several declarations and orders against the NDPC’s Guidance Notice.

In the suit, Ijege claims that the Guidance Notice interferes with his right to privacy guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and argues that it is confusing and requires further clarification. He also asserts that not all individuals or entities are data controllers or processors of major importance, as per section 65 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2024.

The lawyer is seeking declarations that certain paragraphs of the Guidance Notice are ultra vires, null, and void. He also wants the court to mandate the NDPC to provide clarity on the entities exempted from the Guidance Notice and to prescribe entities who fall under the category of controllers/processors not of major importance, as contemplated by section 48(3)(b) of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.

Ijege is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the NDPC and its agents from mandating individuals and entities to register without first prescribing controllers not of importance, as well as consequential orders that the court may deem fit to grant in the suit.

In his written address, Ijege argues that the NDPC lacks the power to designate all controllers and processors as “of major importance” and specifically challenges several paragraphs of the Guidance Notice, calling for them to be struck out.

The suit is yet to be assigned to a judge in the Kaduna Division of the Federal High Court.