ARCON Speaks On President Tinubu Ordering Removal Of ‘All Eyes On The Judiciary’ Billboards

The Director-General of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Olalekan Fadolapo, has reacted to the controversies trailing the removal of the ‘All Eyes on the Judiciary’ billboard adverts nationwide.

Naija News recalls that earlier this week, the Federal Government ordered the removal of the billboard adverts ‘All Eyes on the Judiciary’ in Abuja after it claimed it is a move aimed at pitching the people against the judiciary.

The government also dissolved the Adver­tising Standard Panel (ASP) over its approval of the advert, which caused outrage on social media.

Speaking during an interview with The PUNCH, Fadolopa said the decision was taken because the adverts violated the vetting guidelines and were capable of causing unrest.

He also debunked the claims that President Bola Tinubu had something to do with the punitive actions taken on the development.

According to him, Tinubu has not at any time interfered with the issue, adding he has not been summoned or requested to do anything.

He said, “Our people are extremely biased. Now, this advert has nothing to do with the presidency, I hope we all know this. These adverts have a lot to do with the judiciary; it has absolutely nothing to do with the presidency. I don’t know why they would say that the President asked us or the presidency asked us to punish them.

“How will the presidency interfere with this? The presidency has not, at any point in time, interfered in this issue. This is an administrative procedure. Someone erred, and we looked at it to confirm that they erred and you did not fire them.

“The easiest thing to do is to give them a fair hearing, and in the process of giving them a fair hearing, we are asking them to please step down from the offices they are occupying to be able to investigate properly. How does the presidency now come into this? The judiciary is supposed to be the one that they will say is influencing us, and nobody in the judiciary has even made a statement on this.

“Don’t forget that there are other adverts worse than this on social media that we are even trying to track and pull down, posting some of these judiciary members’ names, their pictures on social media, and all of that. 

“I’ve not been summoned, I’ve not been requested to do anything. This is an administrative thing, and except there’s something that they think should have been done by us and hasn’t been done.

“They err, we suspended them from the office, and the people that are providing the administrative support, we said okay, leave that position and let us investigate because the omission could have caused us a lot. We will give you a fair hearing, appear before a committee, review the entire process, and you’ll come back to us. The presidency has nothing to do with this.”