Caleb Ojewale, BusinessDay’s assistant editor, has won the best Anti-Corruption Reporting Award in the just concluded West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards (WAMECA) 2021.
His work was shortlisted among 711 entries received from 14 countries in West Africa, before clinching a prize.
His three-part series titled “How security agencies hunt, extort local farmers over border closure” beat entries from Niyi Oyedeji and Olugbenga Adaniki, both from International Centre for Investigative Reporting to emerge the winner.
Commending Ojewale, one of the judges described his entry as a good journalistic piece that involved undercover work to expose rogue security agencies, and how they were using Nigeria’s border closure to exploit farmers and communities around the borders.
He commended the display of documentation, meticulous writing, and good visual and graphic illustrations to show the extent of the problem.
“It is speaking to the plight of very ordinary people. You can imagine a very poor local farmer somewhere in a remote area. It is a very intimidating situation and the journalist does his best to bring it out,” the judge said.
Receiving the award, Ojewale said “I can only hope that this leads to more change for the rural dwellers who were extorted. With this, I’m inspired to do more and I’m hoping my colleagues are inspired to do more and we can get more justice for the downtrodden.”
