PREMIUM TIMES Reporter Shines At Thomson Foundation Award

A reporter with PREMIUM TIMES, was on Monday, honoured at the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award.

Kabir Adejumo, who covers the South-west for PREMIUM TIMES, was announced runner up in the yearly award that celebrates journalists aged 30 or under from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than $20,000.

Martín Leandro Camacho, a Peruvian journalist, was announced the winner of the competition while Mr Adejumo and Anna Myroniuk, a Ukrainian journalist, were named worthy runners up.

According to the organisers, “the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award is an important platform for drawing attention to stories that have led to, or have the potential to lead to, positive change in society – and the young journalists reporting them. It’s also the highlight of the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) Awards.”

Mr Adejumo in the three stories submitted to the award “exposed the unscrupulous border guards receiving bribes to help people cross between Nigeria and Benin Republic, despite border closures to contain the spread of Coronavirus.”

The reports also “examined how Nigerian police – capitalising on regulatory failures – support illegal gold mining in south-west Nigeria, and how families of Nigerian soldiers killed in battles with the militant group, Boko Haram, are neglected by the government,” the organisers said.

Mr Adejumo started with PREMIUM TIMES as a campus reporter at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and he has since won multiple awards for his works.

He is a recipient of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, Youth Digest Awards, Alfred Opubor’s Awards, amongst others.

In 2018, he was announced the first Nigerian student journalist to be nominated for Africa Checks Awards.