Abdulrasheed Hammad, a freelance investigative journalist, has been announced as the overall winner of the online category of the 2024 Journalists of the Year Award by the Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF).
The AMDF award aims to celebrate and encourage high-quality journalism that addresses development challenges and promotes transparency, accountability, and good governance in Africa.
The winning investigation, titled ‘INVESTIGATION: Inside Sokoto Factories Producing Contaminated Sachet Water’, funded by the Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF), exposed how 22 factories in Sokoto state operating without registration with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) produced contaminated water sachets.
The story also revealed how 12 sachet water factories are still in operation despite the expiration of their NAFDAC registration, raising questions about the regulatory body’s negligence in the state.
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Winners of various categories of the award were announced during the 8th Africa Conference on Development Journalism (#ACDJ2024), held in Kaduna, on Thursday.
Hammad was nominated alongside Arinze Chijioke, who emerged as the first runner-up, and Kei Emmanuel Duku of One Citizen newspaper, South Sudan, who emerged as the second runner-up in the online category of the award.
“I thank TheCable for funding the winning report, and I appreciate my editor, Taiwo Adebulu, for bringing the best out of the report,” Hammad said.
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In her address, Sekyen Dadik, the executive director of AMDF, said the finalists, chosen from a highly competitive pool of submissions, demonstrated exceptional skill, dedication, and commitment to reporting on critical issues affecting the continent.
“We are incredibly proud of all the finalists and their contributions to journalism. Their work exemplifies the importance of holding powerful interests to account and shedding light on critical issues that impact our communities,” Dadik said.
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