Fisayo Soyombo, Kiki Mordi win $3,000 Journalism Prize

Undercover journalists Fisayo Soyombo and Kiki Mordi have emerged winners of the People Journalism Prize for Africa 2019 (PJPA).

The prize is a $3000 (N1,000,000) endowment from Gatefield, a sub-saharan Africa public strategy firm.

Adewunmi Emoruwa, lead strategist at Gatefield, announced this in a statement on Monday.

Soyombo, a former editor of TheCable, won the prize with his three-part investigation exposing bribery and impunity in Nigeria’s criminal justice system, while Mordi, a journalist with the BBC, clinched the prize with her investigation on sex for grades in some West African universities.

Soyombo’s story generated reactions from the public and the declaration of an official investigation by the Nigerian authorities, and Mordi’s story led to the suspension of University of Lagos lecturers indicted in the video documentary.

Emoruwa said the organiser of the award is proud of both Soyombo and Mordi for subjecting themselves to the torture in a bid to expose the truth.

“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,” he said.

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

The lead strategist said both winners will receive their prize in Abuja during a World Day of Social Justice event themed “Freedom’s Worth Defending”, hosted by Gatefield on February 20.

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