Damilola Banjo and Yusuf Akinpelu have emerged winners at the Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ) award [2021] on November 13, 2021 at the prize-giving ceremony in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Top prizes were also presented to winners in the radio, television and print medium categories, with an overall winner of the Segbor D’Or prize coming from the print media – Gaston Sawadogo from Burkina Faso.
The winner of the gold prize in the online category was Nigeria’s Damilola Banjo for her investigative series on justice for sale. Cameroonian Tchopa Théodore and associates won the silver prize.
The Head of the Data Desk of PREMIUM TIMES, Yusuf Akinpelu was announced the bronze winner in the online category of the PAJI-NZ African Journalism Nobert Zongo award for his report on “How Nigerians are paying deadly price for Europe’s dirty fuel. The winning entry looks deep into Nigeria’s several promises to ensure its fuel contains low sulphur, even as its petrol and kerosene have sulphur over 20 times what they should be. Mr. Akinpelu’s report provides multimedia and data accompaniments on the number of people that die due to air pollution-related causes every year in Nigeria – more than in South Africa, Kenya and Angola combined.
Mr. Yusuf Akinpelu dedicated the recognition to “everyone that has been a part of my development”.
Mr. Akinpelu, a graduate of statistics from the University of Ibadan, is a fellow of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, PTCIJ’s Natural Resource and Extractives Programme on climate reporting.
He has a penchant for books and wildlife. Previously, he has covered the National Assembly and fact-checked for Dubawa.
Organisers had earlier shortlisted five finalists in the online category. Those shortlisted were from newsrooms across four African countries, two from Nigeria and one each from Niger, Cameroon and Tanzania.
The PAJI-NZ, the organisers, said the award is aimed to promote and enhance investigative journalism in Africa, “a practice difficult to implement while it is absolutely essential to the democratic transition processes engaged in most countries of the continent.”
It was initiated in honour of Burkinabé journalist, Norbert Zongo, who was killed while conducting an investigation into the unresolved death of David Ouédraogo, driver of François Compaoré, the younger brother of President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso.
