A businesswoman, Mrs Ifeanyi Eke, has filed a N100m suit against the Joint Admission Matriculation Board and three others before the Federal High Court in Lagos over alleged unsolicited and inappropriate text messages sent to her and her 15-year-old daughter.
Joined as co-respondents in the suit are Island Computer College Limited, one Mr Jibola, and Regina Bassey.
On January 29, JAMB announced the arrest of some registration officers of a Computer-Based Test Centre in connection with a social media outburst by a mother who alleged that her 15-year-old daughter was being approached by a staff of the supposed centre, via a chat on the X platform.
The mother, in her originating summons filed through her lawyer, Olumide Babalola, asked the court for a declaration that the sending of unsolicited and inappropriate text messages to her daughter by Mr Ajibola constituted an interference with her daughter’s right to private and family life guaranteed by Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution.
She also asked for a declaration that by Section 53(2) of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 JAMB and Island Computer College were jointly and vicariously liable for the Mr Jibola’s act of processing her daughter’s data without legal basis, thereby interfering with her right to private and family life under Section 37 of the constitution.
She demanded N100m damages payable jointly and severally by all three respondents.
In a 32-paragraph affidavit, the businesswoman stated that on January 27, 2024, she took her 15-year-old daughter to the JAMB office in Ajah, Lagos to register her for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Eke said, “While filling out the form for my daughter, I filled in my telephone number as the contact telephone number.
“While in the course of his employment, the 3rd respondent (Mr Jibola) took my telephone number from the 1st respondent’s (JAMB) database.
“On getting home on that same January 27th, 2024, I received some text messages from the 3rd respondent (Mr Jibola) who wanted to chat with my under-aged daughter.
“From the tone of the text message, the 3rd respondent (Mr Jibola) wanted to have an inappropriate relationship with my daughter.
“The 3rd respondent confirmed that he got the telephone number from the 1st respondent’s database and he knew it was wrong.
“Even after confirming the age of my daughter, the 3rd respondent continued his inappropriate messages.”
The businesswoman said when it became clear to her that Mr Jibola intended to lure her daughter using the personal data submitted to JAMB she complained on social media.
According to her, when the story went viral on social media, JAMB reached out to her through one of its officers Damilola Bamiro, an ICT consultant, who assured her that her complaint would be looked into.
She said, ‘‘Mr Bamiro later confirmed that the 3rd respondent and another had been arrested in connection with my social media outburst.
“When I didn’t get any further update from the 1st respondent regarding the matter, my lawyer, Olumide Babalola, wrote them a letter received on February 6th, 2024 demanding further information on the prosecution.
“The next day, I got information from the 1st respondent that they had prosecuted the 3rd respondent and then I was contacted by the 4th respondent who showed interest in having a conversation with me.
“The conversation didn’t happen as I was busy and asked to speak with her later. She never called back. I called and left her a message. I however did not get any update on the prosecution, if any, or even the reason for her call.”