Fisayo Soyombo and Kiki Mordi, who are investigative journalists, have jointly won the People Journalism Prize for Africa 2019 (PJPA) by Gatefeild Foundation, a public strategy firm in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The announcement was made in Abuja on Monday by the Foundation, in a statement that was signed by Gafeild’s Campaign and media specialist, Ebiuwairo Uwagboe.

PJPA is a newly formed public service journalism initiative. Its mission is to recognise and reward professional and citizen journalists within Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, whose work have resulted in meaningful positive impact on the society.

Kiki Mordi is an investigative journalist and a multiple award-winning broadcaster with over six (6) years of experience in broadcast media. On the other hand, Fisayo Soyombo was the pioneer Editor of TheCable and also a former Editor of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).

She said that the inaugural prize is backed by a 3000 dollars endowment from Gatefield, and added that Kiki was chosen because of her investigation into the horrid web of sexual harassment on university campuses in West Africa.

Kiki’s work, she said resulted in widespread disciplinary actions and policy reforms across the institutions that were exposed by her thorough investigative reporting of the events.

She noted that Fisayo on the other hand, was chosen for his investigative series that exposed the ingrained nature of corruption within Nigeria’s criminal justice system.

Fisayo spent about two weeks in detention as a “criminal” to bring these stories to the Nigerian public. His report led to the announcement of an official investigation by the Nigerian authorities,

she said.

Commenting on the award, Gatefeild’s Lead Strategist, Mr Adewunmi Emoruwa, said that the two journalists got their award for their exceptional investigative skills.

Both reporters demonstrated the highest level of empathy by subjecting themselves to the excruciating torture of the injustice that they sought to expose in telling these stories.

We could not be more proud of our decision to honour these brave journalists with our inaugural prize.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that he said the winners would receive their prize publicly in Abuja during a World Day of Social Justice event to be hosted by Gatefield on February 20th, 2020.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.