On Tuesday, a digital rights organization, Paradigm Initiative, said it wrote to Muhammed Babandede, the Nigerian Immigration Service’s Controller-General, requesting compensation for a Nigerian whose passport page was published online.
Jeffery Ewohime had his passport page made public following an allegation that last month he destroyed Nigeria’s diplomatic cars in London.
Mr Ewohime reportedly wrecked properties at the Nigerian Embassy in London, particularly vehicles.
The Chairman, Nigerians In the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, condemned the attitude of the 32-year-old Nigerian.
Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said that such an approach was unpatriotic and an act of indiscipline in a declaration by her press assistant, Abdur-Rahman Balogun.
In his letter, the Paradigm Initiative said it was not “touching on the separate issue of the vandalization allegation against Mr Ewohime Jeffrey Apkovweta,” but is “holding Nigerian Immigration accountable for violating the data privacy rights of the citizen by publicly displaying his international passport page, containing personally identifiable information, on social media.”
The organization is also demanding N10 million compensation for the man.
Adeboye Adegoke, Paradigm Initiative Program Manager for Anglophone West Africa, said ‘’the organisation is appalled by the absolute disregard that many government agencies display towards the personal information, including biometric data of citizens in their custody. Despite the fact that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) came out with Data Protection Guidelines for Nigeria, agencies of government and private organizations continue to treat privacy and confidentiality of citizens’ data with levity.”
“Irrespective of the allegations against the citizen, Nigeria Immigration had no right to violate his constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy,” he added.
NITDA’s Data Privacy Guidelines set minimum requirements for data protection for all organizations or individuals that regulate, collect, store or process private information of Nigerian residents and people within and outside Nigeria. Section 1.3 of the Guidelines specifies the scope of individuals bound by the NITDA Guidelines:
“These guidelines are mandatory for Federal, State and Local Government Agencies and institutions as well as other organizations which own, use or deploy information systems within the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he added.
“Section 1.4 of the Guidelines further confirms that ‘the Data Protection Guidelines shall apply to all data controllers in public and private sector as defined in the guidelines’. It also applies to foreign organisations that process personal data of Nigerian citizens,” the statement said.
Tope Ogundipe, the director of programs of the organization, indicated that the letter to Nigeria Immigration was written pursuant to section 109 of the Immigration Act requiring a 30-day pre-action notice stating that the Immigration Services are only paying the person a sum of 10,000,000 as compensation.
He added that if the immigration service fails to act on the letter, the organization will institute a legal action to accomplish its goal and other issues.