Nigeria’s advertising regulatory authority, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), has set up a panel to investigative claims of bias and discrimination leveled against its standards enforcement arm, the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) headed by Mr. Ade Akinde, by brewery giant, Guinness Plc.

The investigation became necessary following the breach of the provision of the Code of Advertising by Guinness, which led to the withdrawal of its certificates for alcoholic beverage advertising early this year and the eventual restoration upon compliance, on the recommendation of ASP.

In a twist, Guinness in a letter by its Managing Director Seni Adetu dated May 7, 2013 complained of discrimination against its company and some also made specific personal complaints against Ade Akinde.

Addressing newsmen on the issue on Friday at APCON House, Iganmu Lagos, Alhaji Bello Kankarofi Registrar cum CEO of APCON, said that as a responsive organisation it was necessary to properly investigate the matter.

“It must be stated at this juncture that APCON performs its regulatory role having regard to laws establishing it and as such extends no favouritism to anybody so as to ensure fair play in the industry,” Kankarofi stated.

He observed that APCON was not out to witch-hunt any persons or organisations but to join hands to move the industry forward. He noted that the APCON Council is made of representatives of various sectors of the industry.

The council, according to Kankarofi, does not meddle into the affairs of its statutory committees but only take decisions based on the information from and recommendations of such committees.

“ASP is a statutory committee of APCON set up by law to ensure compliance with advertising standards and advertising laws of Nigeria. In performing its statutory mandate and its vetting function it usually brief the governing council of APCON of its findings and recommendations,” Kankarofi said.

He pointed out that “APCON Council basically takes its decisions on the basis of such information and recommendations as was done in the case of Guinness Plc a key player in the alcoholic beverages industry in Nigeria.”

Kankarofi assured that the matter would be fully investigated and advised people to refrain from making uninformed comments particularly as the various codes and laws in the matters are available and the investigation is on-going.

News Express reports that Guinness had in February contravened Article 39 of the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice which states that advertisements for alcoholic beverages shall not be aired between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on radio and between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on television.

According to Nkechi May-Nzeribe, Corporate Affairs Officer of APCON, “Guinness ‘Made of More’ advert was aired on DStv platform on Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 16:40 hours West African time during the CAF Nations Cup match between Ghana and Cape Verde and during English Premier League live football matches even after warnings and notifications from the Council.”

The APCON Council sanctioned the brewery giant for exposing its “Guinness Foreign Extra Stout adverts on the Digital Television (DStv) outside the prescribed periods allowed by the APCON Code of Advertising and Promotion guidelines.”

The ban was however lifted because Guinness complied by withdrawing all advertisements that had been scheduled to run and apologised over the breach.

•Photo shows APCON Registrar/CEO, Kankarofi.