James Ojo wins 2024 African Prize for Investigative Journalism
James Ojo wins 2024 African Prize for investigative journalism
James Ojo, the co-founder of CrispNG, has won the online category at the 2024 African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI).
Ojo, also a copy editor with Legit.ng, won the category for his collaborative report with Jabir Ridwan at the award ceremony held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on Tuesday.
The winning entry uncovered how sale of unverified medical documents by health officials for a fee across government-owned hospitals in Sokoto state undermine public trust in health facilities and put communities at risk of disease.
The report also revealed that some officials at the hospitals investigated issue false medical fitness report for N1,000 while that of medical report goes for N2,000.
The PAJI award, launched in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2021, encourages talent and excellence in investigative journalism. It “honours the productions of journalists who showed courage and determination in their work and respected higher journalistic standards and deontological principles.”
The award celebrates in investigative journalists in print, web, radio, and TV. Winners in each category get 1,000000 FCFA or €1,500 while the second and third get 500,000 FCFA and 250 000 FCFA respectively.
At last year’s edition of the award held in Dakar, Senegal, Ojo was a finalist and got special recognition from the award jury for his investigation into petrol smuggling in Nigeria. The 2024 edition was organised by the Media & Democracy (M&D), an Afro-European organisation, and the SJM (Union of Mauritanian Journalists).
Ojo is a graduate of mass communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where he graduated with second-class upper.
He has won several awards and recognition for his journalistic works — in 2017, he clinched the Reporter and Editor of the Year awards, respectively, as a campus journalist at UNN; in 2021, he was named one of the most improved journalists at TheCable; in 2022, he was named the second runner-up at the Business & Economy Reporting category of the PwC Media Excellence Awards; he was also named joint-winner of TheCable Journalist of the Year award for 2022.
He also won the 2022 Hostwriter prize for collaborative journalism as well as Legit.ng’s Copyediting Excellence Award in 2023.
