Winner – Samson Folarin

In a 15-part story investigation, Samson Folarin, a graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Lagos and senior reporter with the Punch newspaper exposes high-level academic corruption, complicity and lack of due diligence in the fraudulent claim of doctorate degree by Chima Igwe, former director-general of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, FIIRO.

His investigation “Against varsity’s pronouncement, ICPC clears embattled FIIRO DG’s PhD” was published over a period of seven months from December 30, 2019 to 29 July 2020. It revealed how government officials under the guise of godfatherism, deceit and academic falsehood secure unmerited high-level appointments. For years, Chima Igwe secured his appointment as the director-general at the FIIRO agency through false doctorate declaration.
Concluding investigations and outcome of Samson Folarin’s story led to the demotion of Chima Igwe as the DG at FIIRO and sanction to refund all public funds and benefits enjoyed by his office for 18 years.
Samson Folarin’s story portrays courage, a stance for truth and pure doggedness.

Runner up – Ibrahim Adeyemi

Efforts by the Nigerian government to achieve free, qualitative and equitable education according to Sustainable Development Goal 4 is being foiled in some government primary schools in Sokoto state through the federal government’s N-Power programme.

Through an undercover investigation, Ibrahim Adeyemi obtained evidence of how dozens of ghost teachers in seven government owned schools in Sokoto state get paid millions of naira for jobs they never do by conniving with the principals and headmasters of the disadvantaged schools. His report, “Sokoto’s ghost teachers, corrupt school principals, stealing FG’s N-Power funds’’ published in BusinessDay newspaper of 17 December 2019, uncovers massive corruption and human rights issues in Sokoto’s north-western state of Nigeria.

As a result of the investigation, the Federal government sanitised the school system by sacking all culpable teachers and school principals.

Commended – Ibrahim Adeyemi

A creative writer, investigative reporter and a fact-checker with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Ibrahim Adeyemi’s undercover investigation is an expose on how the Nigeria Immigration Service compromise our national security with N200 bribe. In his story, “With just N200 bribe per immigration checkpoint, illegal migrants are infiltrating Nigeria through Sokoto” published in BusinessDay of 9 January 2020.

In his four-part investigation, Ibrahim risked his life when he joined illegal immigrants travelling by road from Lagos to Niger Republic. He documented his experience of illegal migration activities at the national borders with evidences of videos and pictures.

His investigations prompted a probe and prosecution of corrupt immigration officials and introduction of an e-registration system of illegal migrants in Nigeria.

Winner  – Damilola Banjo

Damilola Banjo is currently on her master’s programme in Cultural and Media studies from the University of Ibadan. Her three-part investigative story- “Justice for Sale”, published on 5 March 2020 is an expose on the corruption in Nigeria’s judicial system. The first part of the report describes the notorious activities in the anti-cultism unit of the Nigerian police force. The second part documents the complicity of corrupt legal officers who sentence innocent citizens into prison and the final part concludes with extortion and exploitation of the family of convicts.

Following the publication, preliminary prosecutions was instigated against all indicted officers in the report. The report addresses the exploitation of state machineries set up for the protection of the masses to abuse their human rights.

Runner up – Taiwo Hassan Adebayo

Worried about the continuous failure of several administrations in rehabilitating the comatose eastern rail lines which had gulped over N67.3 billion from March 2011 till date, Taiwo Hassan Adebayo, senior investigative reporter with Premium Times embarked on an extensive investigation about the failure of the multi billion-naira project. The eastern railway line project connects 10 states across Nigeria thereby accelerating industrialisation, and trade across states.

Taiwo Hassan Adebayo’s report, “From Jonathan to Buhari: Inside Nigeria’s Multi Billion Naira Railway Fraud’ published on 13 July 2020 by Premium Times, exposed how Lingo Nigeria hustled Nigerian authorities and two foreign firms into humongous billion-naira fraud. The story exposes the inherent corruption in Nigeria’s government parastatals and regulatory failure in the railway sector.

Commended – Habib Oladapo and Damilola Banjo

This commended category will jointly be presented to two worthy journalists, Habib Oladapo, who both worked with Sahara reporters as at the time of the publication of the commended story. The reporters went undercover to expose the examination rot in a private school in Lagos state.

Their piece ‘Inside a Lagos state School where A1 can be bought’ published on 20 July 2020 was a six-month investigation of examination fraud and malpractice in Bachel College, a private school with branches in Ogba, Egbeda and Ayobo areas of Lagos state. The story highlights endemic examination malpractice perpetrated by a cartel of school owners, authorities and parents.

As a result of the investigation, the Lagos state Ministry of Education and the West Africa Examinations Council have initiated corrective steps against future occurrence.

Commended – Ikechukwu Ibe

An armed solider punishing a commercial bike rider at Mararaba in Nasawara state is Ikechuwkwu Ibe’s photo which was published in Daily Trust Newspaper of 17 September 2020. It tells a powerful visual story of how security officials oppress and disrespect the human dignity of the common man.

A graduate of Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, Ikechukwu Ibe has been recognised for his creative photo stories as the winner, photo category of the 2015 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting and the winner of the photo print, Rotary District 9125 Humanitarian Reporting Awards 2016.

Ikechukwu Ibe’s work acknowledges how security officials, through the façade of work oppress and disrespect the human dignity of the common man.

Commended – Victor Asowata

Asowata Victor is a visual artist, painter, cartoonist-illustrator with two decades of consistent and excellent practice in visual and communication arts. A journalist with Punch newspaper and graduate of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, he has several awards to his name including the Rector Award for “The best painting student“-HND Fine Art department, Yaba College of Technology, Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME)- Nigeria Editorial Cartoonist of the year, Nigeria’s top editorial cartoonist, BBC-WST (World Service Trust), winner MUSON National painting competition among others.

His photo “Canada opens doors for Nigerian professionals, doctors’’ depicts the brain drain of Nigerian professionals to developed countries who lure them in promise of a more secured future.

Victor Asowata’s picture represents the sad reality and danger of how a great percentage of Nigeria’s future leaders seek greener pastures in developed countries.