Sterling Bank Plc on Monday night apologized to Nigerians over a provocative post on its social media platform.
The lender had in post celebrating the Easter celebration likened the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the rise of Agege bread.
The post – “Like Agege Bread, He Rose,” sparked angry reactions on social media with many demanding immediate removal of the post and an apology.
The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) also threatened to sanction Sterling Bank over the post.
In a reaction posted on the APCON Facebook page, the agency’s Registrar and Chief Executive, Olalekan Fadolapo, described the advert as “insensitive and provocative.”
He said the post was not submitted to the regulator to determine its worthiness for the Nigerian environment.
However, in a statement signed by its Chief Executive, Abubakar Suleiman, the bank asked the public for forgiveness over the offensive message.
The lender admitted that the post was insensitive and failed to capture the sober nature of the event.
The statement read: The statement reads: “On behalf of the management and staff of Sterling Bank PLC, I write to tender our unreserved apology to you and members of our nation’s Christian community for our Easter message email of 17 April 2022.
“The content of the infographic and the message it contained was insensitive and failed to consider the very sober nature of the event being commemorated, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“While the message had no malicious intent, there is no place for content that fails to fully account for the feelings of billions of people all over the world. Out honest intent was to join our millions of customers in Nigeria and worldwide in celebrating this solemn event but our execution fell short on this occasion.
“Our policies are clear on what constitutes acceptable customer communication and this message should not have been released to our customers. On this occasion, our editorial processes fell short of our policy standards.
“As a responsible institution, we immediately withdrew the offensive material and initiated a review of the circumstances that led to this failure. We will further sensitise our workforce to ensure the unfortunate lapse in judgment never repeats itself.
“We thank you for your continued trust in us and apologise again for this unfortunate incident.”
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