The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, sitting in Lagos, has awarded ₦2 million in damages against Lafarge Africa Plc for unlawfully retaining and using the personal details of a former employee years after his termination from the company.
Delivering judgment on February 17, 2026, in a suit marked NICN/LA/60/2022, the court, presided over by Justice Ikechi Gerald Nweneka held that the cement manufacturer violated the claimant’s constitutional right to privacy and data protection by continuing to list him as a company contact in official purchase orders long after his employment ended.
The claimant, Kehinde Adeniyi Johnson, approached the court in February 2022, seeking declarations that the company’s conduct constituted unlawful use of his identity, fraudulent misrepresentation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
He also demanded ₦50 million as general and aggravated damages. Johnson told the court that although his employment with Lafarge ended in November 2019, he continued to receive phone calls, emails, and WhatsApp messages from suppliers and logistics agents regarding consignments intended for the company.
According to him, his name, personal email address, and phone number remained listed as the company’s buyer and contact person in purchase orders circulated internationally.
He narrated an incident in which he reportedly accepted delivery of a shipment from India after being contacted by a dispatcher.
However, he was allegedly denied entry into the company’s premises when he attempted to complete the delivery and was later attacked by armed robbers, an experience he said caused significant emotional trauma and exposed him to risk.
Lafarge denied liability, attributing the situation to a technical glitch in its computer system.
The company argued that it had disabled the claimant’s official access upon his exit and notified suppliers of his disengagement.
It also challenged the court’s jurisdiction, contending that claims relating to tort and emotional distress fell outside the National Industrial Court’s competence.
In its ruling on preliminary objections, the court dismissed Lafarge’s challenge to the admissibility of emails and WhatsApp messages tendered as evidence, holding that the communications involved the parties and were not hearsay.
On jurisdiction, Justice Nweneka ruled that the dispute arose directly from the employment relationship between the parties and therefore fell within the court’s authority.
The court also noted that the action was not instituted under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules, making it properly filed before the industrial court.
After evaluating the evidence, the judge found that Lafarge continued to use the claimant’s name and telephone number in its purchase documentation after his employment had ceased, describing the conduct as reckless, particularly after the company had been formally notified by the claimant’s solicitors.
The court held that the actions breached the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, as well as Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees citizens’ right to privacy.
It also upheld the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, characterising the company’s conduct as intolerable.
However, the court declined to grant several other reliefs sought by the claimant, including claims relating to human dignity, tortious interference, indemnification, and aggravated damages, because they were either not proven or improperly framed.
In awarding ₦2 million damages, the judge cited statutory limits under the Nigeria Data Protection Act and the need for proportionality.
The court further ordered Lafarge to permanently delete the claimant’s personal data from its servers, applications, and purchase order systems, and to deactivate any pre-generated codes associated with his name.
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