Two of the three Nigerian nominees for the finals of the 2013 CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards emerged winners in their categories.
Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye of Sunday Punch won the UNICEF-sponsored Environment Category while Tolu Ogunlesi, a freelance journalist for Ventures Africa was the winner of the Coca-Cola Company, Economics and Biz Awards category at the award ceremony held on October 11 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Geoff Iyatse of The Guardian was the runner up in the Environment category won by Ogunseye.
Ogunseye’s three part story, The rich also cry, focused on pollution in an estate in Lagos where gaseous metal had created very serious medical challenges.
Ogunlesi who won with an investigative report on the Eko Atlantic City dedicated his award to the millions of down-trodden people in Nigeria and around the world.
The overall winner were two South Africans journalists, Msindisi Fengu and Yandisa Monakali, for their piece on students’ hostel which looked like prison cells in South Africa.
Other freelance journalists who won awards were Noicola de Chaud, with a documentary in the Culture category and Florence Dallu in the Radio General News category. All the 16 winners were selected from over 1400 entries