COURT ORDERS CONDOM MAKERS TO WARN USERS THAT IT CAN’T GUARANTEE 100 % SAFE SEX

IGBOSERE, Nigeria – A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere today has ordered manufacturers of condom to warn users that it cannot guarantee 100 per cent safe sex. Justice Taofiquat Oyekan-Abdullahi also ordered the producers to insert the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) Health Risk warning “Condom is not 100 per cent safe. Total abstinence or faithfulness is the best option”, in adverts promoting condoms as instrument for safer sex “.

The judge also ordered that such advertisements should be aired between 6pm and 10pm on television and between 6am and 8pm on radio.
Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi made the order in a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the Project for Human Development (PHD) against the Society for Family Health (SFH).

PHD had through its counsel, Sonnie Ekwowusi, sought a declaration that the advertisement of ‘Gold Circle’ condom by SFH without the APCON health risk warning clause was illegal and unconstitutional.

Ekwowusi said it was contrary to Article 49 of the APCON Laws, Sections 17, 37, 38, 39 (3), 45 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 17, 18 27 and 29 of the African Charter on Human & Peoples’ Rights (Ratification Enforcement) Act, CAP 10.

The applicant contended that condom advertisements in Nigeria give the misleading impression that they are 100 per cent safe.
“If there are no holes in condoms, why would the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insist that manufacturers test for holes in condoms and consequently set an Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) that if up to four condoms have holes in a batch of 1,000, the batch will be allowed to pass?

“Condoms, in addition to having possible manufacturing defects, could undergo deterioration during shipping, handling and storage, and even further degradation after purchase by the end user,” the applicant argued.