Winner – Olukunle Akinrinade

Olukunle Akinrinade is a 2014 Soyinka Laureate and Head, Weekend Crime Desk of The Nation. His five-part investigative report, “Soldiers escort herdsmen to Ogun villages, flog residents for rejecting herders”, spanning three months (23 January – 20 March 2021) and published in The Nation, is an exposé into how the military abet human rights violation against citizens, in this case, forcing the villagers to flee to the neighbouring Republic of Benin for refuge.

The report established contrary to official claims by the authorities that there were more than 5,000 Nigerians from the Ogun villages in the Republic of Benin as refugees. The displaced villagers have since been evacuated from the francophone country by Nigerian authorities back to the ruins of their communities.

Runner-Up – Omolabake Fasogbon

The Lagos State Ministry of Environment under the administration of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, had on 7th May and 5th July 2018 awarded a contract worth N576million for the implementation of mechanised sweeping of major highways and thoroughfares across the Lagos West Senatorial District to secure the lives of highway sweepers who often are victims of hit and run drivers.

“Death, sleaze as Lagos N576m highway machine sweepers lie fallow”, an investigative piece by Omolabake Fasogbon published 13 December 2020 in ThisDay dug into the contract. It found that despite the huge sum released, the project which was contracted out to three firms did not take off. According to the report, one of the contractors did not exist and there was an irregularity in the contract award date, pointing to a corrupt deal between the contractors and the government.

Commended – Tessy Igomu

“Imo’s regime of bloodshed, mindless killings by troops leave parents, widows, children in agony”, is a three-part undercover story published in The Punch beginning from 29 July 2021. The story exposes police and military brutalities that led to alleged extrajudicial killings of unarmed citizens in Imo State.

Using documents, on-the-ground reporting, interviews with scared families of victims, eyewitnesses, videos and pictures, evidence of tales of anguish, trauma and despondency, Tessy Igomu, multiple award winner and chief correspondent with Punch, recounts the plight of the affected families.

After initially denying that the morgue was overwhelmed by corpses, most of whom were victims of extrajudicial killings and ruling out plans for mass burial, the management of Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, came out months later to announce plans to carry out mass burial, in response to the report.

Winner – Kunle Adebajo

“The deradicalised-One man’s journey from Almajiri to Jihadist and then IDP” is a five-part story by Kunle Adebajo, Investigations Editor and Head of Internal Fact-check, HumAngle Media Limited, published from 29 November 2020 to 24 March 2021.

The story offers revelation on the contradictions in the deradicalisation programme of government. It showed complexity of how people join insurgents and terrorists as well as the problems of re-integration. It further reveals the duplicity of government, while uncovering the and violations of human rights by the Nigerian military.

Less than four months after the publication of the fifth and final part, the Nigerian military confirmed that it had cleared 1,004 inmates in these detention centres for release after they had been confirmed to be innocent, the largest single batch of release from these facilities since the insurgency started.

Runner-Up – Ibrahim Adeyemi

A senior investigative reporter with Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Ibrahim Adeyemi’s story “Memoirs of Carnage”, published 9 September 2021, is an extensive investigation into how Nigerian soldiers allegedly massacred dozens of innocent villagers in the Konshinsha area of Benue State, to supposedly avenge the murder of their colleagues. The accused soldiers deny the claim.

However, the investigation spanning four months established how Nigerian soldiers massacred over 50 innocent villagers. It reveals the names and faces of the victims and also narrates the consequences of their sudden loss to their families and neighbours.

Evidence provided by story prompted a contingent of Benue indigenous lawyers and community leaders to take legal action against the Nigerian military, demanding compensations and justice for the families of villagers murdered by the invasion.

Commended – Taiwo Adebayo

“INVESTIGATION: Inside the horrific bloodshed and massive extrajudicial killings in Nigeria’s Oyigbo community” published 23 November 2020 by Premium Times, used on-the-ground reporting, interviews with multiple sources, including families of victims, witnesses, military, mortuary attendants and hospital sources, and a review of verified citizen-generated videos and photos to uncover extrajudicial killings and gross violation of human rights by the Nigerian Army in Oyigbo community in Rivers State. The story was done by Taiwo Adebayo, a sub-assistant editor (Investigations) with the organisation.

The story sparked widespread outrage, forcing the soldiers to withdraw from Oyigbo. The report offered right groups a basis to hold the government accountable, and the government has since released several illegally detained residents.

Winner – Abiodun Omotosho

A graduate of The Polytechnic Ibadan, Abiodun Omotosho, is a photojournalist with Nigerian Pilot. He was deputy photo editor with NewsWatch Times, assistant photo editor with the defunct NEXT Newspaper, and freelance photojournalist with Guardian Newspapers.

His photo, “Lagos State Government, police authority, denies killing of innocent girl during Yoruba Nation Agitators Rally”, published 6 July 2021 in Nigerian Pilot, unearth how police bullet allegedly killed an innocent teenage trader identified as Jumoke during the Yoruba Nation Agitators Rally in Ojota, Lagos on 3rd July 2021 while shooting sporadically at protesters to disperse them.

Runner-Up –Benedict Uwalaka

Published in Daily Trust of Monday, 5 July 2021, the photograph captioned ‘Police arresting one of the Yoruba protesters at Ojota in Lagos’ by Benedict Uwalaka spotlights yet again a case of police brutality on a citizen who had joined the Yoruba Nation campaign in Ojota, Lagos, Nigeria. The action of representatives of the Nigerian Police Force breached the extant human rights protocol on the rights to protest and freedom of expression, under the guise of preventing breakdown of law and order.

A graduate of History and International Studies from the Lagos State University, Benedict Uwalaka, freelances for Daily Trust. He had a stint at Comet and Leadership Newspaper as photojournalist and senior photojournalist respectively. He has attended several journalism training and workshops.

Commended – Olatunji Obasa

The front-page photo ‘Water scarcity’ published 25 March 2021 in the Punch Newspaper by Olatunji Obasa, a senior photojournalist with the newspaper, paints a scandalous picture of the scarcity of water right in the nation’s seat of power, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The challenge made residents of some communities resort to stream water for drinking and other domestic purposes. It illustrates what rural communities suffer in Nigeria – lack of access to portable water which predisposes them to cholera and other water-borne diseases.

A two-time finalist of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting and 2010 winner of the photo category, Olatunji has won other awards, including the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) and the Nigeria/China Chambers of Commerce Awards. He holds a diploma in mass communication from the Nigerian Institute for Journalism, Lagos.

Commended – Sharon Ijasan

Alarmed at the high out-of-school children statistics in Nigeria, Sharon Ijasan, Education and Labour Correspondent at TVC News, became curious about other activities children engage in that keep them out of school. She soon discovered, that some children work as sex workers for a paltry sum of money.

Her story titled “Child sex trade” aired 28th December 2020 on TVC News uncovered the cause of child prostitution, the communities where it is predominant and the institutions supporting the atrocity. Following the airing, the red spot for child sex trade in Kaduna was demolished by the state government, thus most of the girls have moved out.

A 2019 winner of the radio category of this award, Sharon Ijasan holds a Higher National Diploma in Mass Communication from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and a postgraduate degree in the same field from Babcock University.

Winner – Mary Abayomi-Fatile

Mary Abayomi-Fatile is a crime reporter with Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Lagos. Her five-part investigation “Indian company staff investigation” was aired on Radio Nigeria network news, with the first in the series broadcast on 15 October 2020.

The report focuses on a middle-aged Nigerian man, Michael, who was accused of being in possession of a fake letter of employment by his Indian employer. He was then subjected to a series of physical and psychological torture, and subsequently detained on trumped-up charges.

Contrary to the employer’s accusations, the investigation found that the accused had worked about nine years with the Indian company, thereby uncovering complicity of the private sector, police and government in the human rights abuse.

Runner-Up – Kelechukwu Ogu

While the media was agog with the atrocities that happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on 20 October 2020, there were reports on Ajegunle, but the crimes committed against harmless protesters were no less shocking. “Merchant of Massacre”, an investigative piece by Kelechukwu Ogu, who freelances for Rhythm 93.7FM, proved that #ENDSARS protesters in Ajegunle, a suburb of Lagos, were also attacked by government-backed thugs.

With several accounts from eyewitness, police, the victims and their relatives, as well as open source verification of video evidence, the investigation fingered Kazeem Morufu, also known as Kaka, and believed to be the Chief Security Officer to the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Chair as the alleged perpetrator. The bullet wound sustained by victims interviewed allegedly showed that they were hit by the type of bullet used for the gun seen with Kaka’s wingman.

Runner-Up – Zainab Sanni

Zainab Sanni is a development journalist and deputy director, News and Current Affairs cum Head, Investigative Desk, Agidigbo FM, Ibadan, Oyo State. Her two-part investigative series, “The Oyo Zero Potholes Initiative, how far?” aired on Agidigbo FM, dug into an initiative of the Oyo State Government to improve the conditions of roads across the state, beginning from Ibadan, the state capital.

The shocking discovery one year after was that potholes still remained a regular feature of many roads across Ibadan despite hundreds of millions spent on the project. The contractor who was assigned the project in Oyo Town, comprising of four local government areas, had received a certificate of completion despite an uncompleted job.

Winner – Victor Asowata

Victor Asowata is a visual and communication artist with more than two decades practice in the creative arts. A cartoon editor with The Will Newspaper, Victor employs cartoons, particularly in editorials to provide the space for probity, transparency and accountability in governance.

His cartoon “Seed time and harvest” published in The Will Newspaper reveals that the neglect of Nigerian children is the seed of the violence and insecurity that the country is harvesting today. It epitomises elite greed and selfishness and how duty bearers are destroying Nigeria’s future.