Sterling Bank Plc has apologised to Christians for its Easter message which linked the resurrection of Jesus Christ to ‘Agege Bread’.
The bank had in its Easter message on April 17 compared the resurrection of Jesus to ‘Agege bread’.
The message was greeted with wide condemnation with many calling on the federal government and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to sanction the bank for being insensitive to the Christian faith.
The Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON), through its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, also said Sterling Bank would be sanctioned for the “provocative Easter celebration advertisement”.
However, the bank in a statement issued by its Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Suleiman, a copy of which was made available to The Star on Monday, apologised for its Easter message, noting that the content of the message was insensitive and failed to consider the sober nature of the resurrection of Jesus.
Suleiman stated that the message which had no “malicious intent” has since been withdrawn by the bank.
The statement read: “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.
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“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. Our 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 this unfortunate lapse in judgement never repeats itself.
“We thank you for your continued trust in us and apologise again for this unfortunate incident,” Suleiman stated.
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