APCON Insists On Approving Political Adverts 
Published on November 15, 2010 by pmnews · 1 CommentPoliticians have been advised to seek the approval of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) before publishing any advertisement in respect of the 2011 general elections.
The council’s Registrar, Alhaji Garba Bello, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday that such clearance was necessary to check abuse of advertisements by politicians.
The registrar said that media organisations should also ensure that political adverts were cleared with APCON before publishing them.
“APCON, as a regulatory agency, is empowered to control and regulate advertisements in all aspects and ramifications.
“The essence of the pre-exposure clearance is to safeguard against spurious, misleading, indecent or disparaging advertisements capable of exploiting or offending the sensibility of the public,†he explained.
He added that such clearance would enhance free, fair and credible elections.
Bello decried the failure of some political aspirants to forward their campaign programmes and manifestos to APCON for scrutiny in spite of a letter to them by the council.
“Only one of the presidential aspirants has responded to our request,†he added.
He urged politicians to play politics according to its rules and shun acts that could cause violence and breakdown of law and order.
“Nigeria is already in the eye of the world; any failure on our part can send a wrong signal to the outside world,†he said.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 P.M.News
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Clearly the action of this agency is unconstitutional. Nigerian enjoy freedom of speech under the constitution. The freedom to regulate speech, especially in presenting political speeches cannot be controlled by government, otherwise, there will a near impossibilty for the political parties to do their jobs, which is to campaign against the policies of their opposition.