Query a associative array from Database CI4

Hi, hope you guys are doing ok, 


I'm having trouble changing an array to an object in CI4, I have my working code in PHP which works fine, but I'm having difficulty writing it on CI4, below is my query for a "search" in my Database that retrieves a result and set it as a associative array(object) with a null value,

PHP Code:

if (isset($_GET['q'])) {
    $query = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_GET['q']);
    $title = array();

    $sql = "SELECT name FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%$query%'";
    $results = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
    $names = mysqli_num_rows($results);

    if ($names > 0) {
        while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($results)) {
            $name[$row['name']] = null;
        }
    } else {
        exit();
    }
} else {
    exit();
}

echo json_encode($name); 


However in CI4. the closest thing I could muster up is below, which kind of work, but don't think it is right

Code:

  $user = new  UserModel();
     
  $term = $this->request->getVar('term');
  $data =  $user->like('name', $term, 'both')->findColumn('name');
     
  $object = (object)$data;

    foreach($data as $key => $val) {

        $object->$val = null;

  }

  return $this->response->setJSON($object);

How can I fix this code to get results as the raw PHP, which outputs the whole array converted to an object with its key(from array index) and value as null