The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, (ARCON), has summoned Hayat Kimya to make or break meeting on Thursday, September 15th, 2022 at his Lagos office by 10am over an alleged unpaid media fee of N481,349,845.45 to Mainsail Media Limited, The Industry Newspaper can authoritatively report.
It would be recalled that ARCON recently issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Hayat Kimya to resolve the debt crisis with Mainsail Media or face sanction.
In a letter signed by the Director General of ARCON, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo tagged “Hayat Kimya’s indebtedness Of N481,349,845.45 to Mainsail Media Limited 7-Day’s ultimatum to resolve the debt”, the advertising apex regulatory body said that “Hayat Kimya should resolve the issue of indebtedness with Mainsail within 7 days of receipt of this letter and where the debt is not resolved within 7days, the ARCON will be constrained to invoke all or any of the following actions:
revoke all approvals to advertise issued to Hayat Kimya advertising materials until the issue is resolved.
(Decline further approval of all advertisement materials of Hayat Kimya until the issue is resolved.
(c). Enter Hayat Kimya in the black book of Nigerian Advertising Register, petition other relevant government regulatory agencies to investigate the business and economic activities of Hayat Kimya in Nigeria for the purpose of determining whether such activities are being carried out in an unethical manner and in disregard to government’s regulation, and cause the prosecution of Hayat Kimya or its officers where violation of any provision of the law is observed.
However, Hayat Kimya through its solicitors, Abdulai, Taiwo & Co on September 6th, 2022 replied ARCON in a correspondence tagged “Re: Alleged Indebtedness of N481,349,849.45 to Mainsail Media Limited- 7 Days Ultimatum to resolve the debt’, said, “Our client informed us that it duly notified you at the meeting between Hayat Kimya and APCON (now ARCON)on April 24th, 2022that it wrote a petition to Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)to investigate an allegation of a huge fraud perpetrated against it by Mainsail Media involving hundreds of millions of Naira, when it was alerted by a whistleblower as rightly stated in your 7 Days Ultimatum letter under reference”
According to the Hayat Kimya reply to ARCON, the solicitors further stated that “Consequent upon these revelations by a whistleblower, Hayat Kimya was advised to withhold further payments to Mainsail Media until the fraud is investigated and culprits identified and brought to justice. “
“Payments made in the past appear to have been fraudulently obtained from our client by false claims and pretenses,” Abdulai, Taiwo & Co, stated.
In the September 6th, 2022 letter, it is gathered that the cases had been reported to the EFCC and investigations have begun. “Investigations into the allegations of massive fraud has commenced and sometime in July 2022, the EFCC requested for more documents which are in large bundles of over 1000 pages (hard copies) and also soft copies in flash drives and compact discs to enable the EFCC sift through the bundle with ease,” the correspondence revealed.
The Industry Newspapers gathers through reliable sources that Hayat Kimya that would be attending the meeting its lawyers and some members of Advertisers Association of Nigeria, (ADVAN) is ready to push the case through court.
Meanwhile, ARCON according to reliable source would be bringing the full weight of the new law upon Hayat Kimya until a court of competent jurisdiction say otherwise.
