A woman entrepreneur in Lagos, Mrs Amuda Adeleke, aged 34, has cried out over the use of her image on different billboards across the country without her consent by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation for the presidential campaign of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi in the 2019 Nigeria general elections.
The woman who has filed a fundamental rights Suit with Suit No FHC/L/CS/193/2019, Amuda Adeleke v Saraki & 3 Others through her lawyers at the Federal High Court Lagos has condemned the action of the Atiku campaign organisation to have used her image without her consent and has sued for damages against Atiku Abubakar and others for infringing on her fundamental right to privacy guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. Also joined as Respondents in the Suit are the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi.
From the details gathered from the court processes, in December 2018, agents of the Atiku Campaign Organisation visited the woman’s place of business at Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island Lagos for the Atiku/Obi’s presidential campaign and in the course of the campaign, took pictures of her image which to her greatest surprise the pictures were being displayed on strategic bill boards all over the country for the Atiku Obi presidential campaign.
According to the woman “I have been inundated with calls from friends and relatives congratulating me on my endorsement with the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation when in fact my prior consent was not sought. I was not contacted by the Organisation for using my image for their campaigns on billboards across the country. My image is all over the billboards in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, etc. and people will attest to this”. Shocked at the development, I instructed my lawyers to write to the campaign organisation and the PDP, my letters were received and ignored.
Nigerians have criticized and reacted to this bad development, saying that this speaks bad and shows insincerity on the part of Atiku and Obi who have promised to better the economic fortunes of the masses but are on the other hand trampling on the economic and fundamental rights of a poor Nigerian woman in something as big as using the woman’s pictures for digital campaign without her prior consent, authorization or compensation.
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