A recent Federal High Court decision in Abdulmalik Muhaimin Onimisi v Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (FHC/ABJ/CS/1181/2025) has brought renewed attention to the right of Nigerians to object to the use of their personal data for direct marketing.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi, SAN, FCIArb (U.K), Notary Public, has examined the significance of the judgment against the backdrop of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) and the evolving obligations imposed on organisations that collect and process personal information.
According to Atoyebi, the increasing deployment of personal data for commercial communication has intensified the tension between legitimate business interests and the privacy rights of individuals.
The NDPA requires personal data to be processed lawfully and provides data subjects with a specific right to object to the processing of their information for direct marketing.
Against this background, Atoyebi describes Onimisi v GTCO as significant for being an early judicial application of these statutory protections.
The judgment particularly draws attention to the responsibility of data controllers to justify the legal basis for processing personal data, account for the source of data obtained indirectly and discontinue direct marketing where a data subject has exercised the right to object.
The review also highlights the relationship between statutory data protection rights and the constitutional right to privacy.
Atoyebi critically examines the Court’s approach to direct marketing, transparency, data provenance and the remedies granted in the case, while cautioning against reading the decision beyond its particular facts.
The article further considers the subsequent General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID), particularly Article 18(1)(a), which expressly requires consent for direct marketing, and examines what the developing regulatory framework means for businesses and other data controllers operating in Nigeria.
The decision and subsequent regulatory developments underscore the growing need for organisations to review how personal information is obtained, documented and deployed for marketing communications, particularly where a data subject has expressly objected to such processing.
Read the full legal analysis here:
By: Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi SAN, FCIArb (U.K) (Notary Public)
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