Olukunle Akinrinade of The Nation Newspaper has emerged the winner of the 2021 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting Nigeria Investigative Reporter of the Year organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
Akinrinade also won the print category of the award along with other category winners during the award ceremony held on December 16 in Lagos.
His winning entry was a five-part investigation, “Soldiers escort herdsmen to Ogun villages, flog residents for rejecting herders”, published in The Nation.
Kunle Adebajo of HumAngle won the online category with his five-part investigative report, “The deradicalised: One man’s journey from Almajiri to Jihadist and then IDP”, while Mary Abayomi-Fatile of Radio Nigeria was the winner in the radio category for her five-part report “Indian company staff investigation”.
Abiodun Omotosho of Nigerian Pilot won the Photo category with his graphic picture titled “Lagos State Government, police authority, denies killing of an innocent girl during Yoruba Nation Agitators Rally”.
Both television and cartoon categories had one finalist each. Victor Asowata of The Will Newspaper emerged winner for his cartoon, “Seedtime and harvest”, while Sharon Ijasan of TVC News was commended for her report, “Child sex trade” in the television category.
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Runners up in the print categories were Omolabake Fasogbon of THISDAY for her story, “Death, sleaze as Lagos N576m highway machine sweepers lie fallow” and Tessy Igomu of The Punch who was commended for the three-part undercover story titled “Imo’s regime of bloodshed, mindless killings by troops leave parents, widows, children in agony”
Ibrahim Adeyemi emerged runner-up in the Online category with his story titled “Memoirs of Carnage” published by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and Taiwo Adebayo was commended for his story, “Investigation: Inside the horrific bloodshed and massive extrajudicial killings in Nigeria’s Oyigbo community” on Premium Times.
Benedict Uwalaka won the prize for runner-up in the photo category with his photograph captioned “Police arresting one of the Yoruba protesters at Ojota in Lagos” published in Daily Trust, while Olatunji Obasa of Punch was commended in the same category for his photo “Water scarcity”.
The Radio category had two runners-up – Zainab Sanni, with her two-part story, “The Oyo Zero Potholes Initiative, how far?” aired on Agidigbo FM and Kelechukwu Ogu with his story “Merchant of Massacre” on Rhythm 93.7FM.
Winners, runners-up and commended works in this edition of the award were presented cash prizes of N200,000, N100,000 and N50,000 respectively, plus a certificate of commendation. Winners also got award plaques and a laptop; runners-up got a smartphone and commended works got a hard drive.
For his immense contribution to journalism and cartooning in Nigeria, particularly during the military era, Josy Ajiboye, veteran cartoonist and painter of the old Daily Times, was decorated with the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence.
CLEEN Foundation, represented by Blessing Abiri, Head, Lagos office of the organisation, was presented the 2021 Human Rights Defender Award in recognition of its dedication to police reform and human rights defence in Nigeria, and the great contribution of its founder, Late Innocent Chukwuma.
Babatunde Ennis
This year award was commendable.
Babatunde Ennis
I watched the award ceremony online. It was commendable from the organizer to the recipient of this year award.