Lagos – It was a night of glory for Daily Independent at the 12th Nigeria Media Nite-Out Award on Sunday where two of its reporters emerged as outstanding writers for 2018.
The annual award ceremony, which was held at the Lagos Airport Hotel, witnessed the crème-de-la-crème of the society, especially in politics, business, and entertainment.
Olusegun Koiki, Daily Independent’s aviation correspondent, was announced as winner of ‘Aviation Writer of the Year’ award after his nomination alongside four other journalists from Punch, Daily Trust, BusinessDay, and ThisDay Newspapers.
Koiki, after receiving the award, commended the organisers for their objectivity and due diligence in picking him as the winner.
He lauded the management of Daily Independent for offering him the platform to exhibit his skills and also dedicated the award to Mrs. Ruth Innocent who, he said, lost her life just on Saturday, few hours after giving birth to a baby girl.
It was the second time Koiki would emerge winner of the award, having first won it in 2014.
Hazeez Balogun, Editor of Saturday Independent, was named ‘Entertainment Writer of the Year’ by the organisers.
Balogun emerged winner of the prestigious award after beating other colleagues from Leadership, Tribune, Nation, New Telegraph, and Yoruba Movie Gist.
When he was called to the rostrum, Balogun lauded the organisers for their impartiality and originality in selecting winners.
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He stated that it was the first time he would be selected as the winner of the award, having being nominated several times by the organisers.
He said: “I want to commend the organisers of this award. I have won several awards in the past, but this is the first time I would emerge as the winner of this particular award even though my name had come up severally for nomination.”
Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Alozie, head of the organising team of the annual award, said the award was given in recognition of the outstanding contributions of the nominees to the media industry, economic advancement of the nation, especially in the areas of education and empowerment in the path of employment generation and security.
In his paper presentation at the award, Mr. Femi Awoniyi, Co-Director of Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria (MEPN), said the media have a huge role to play from dissuading illegal migration to Europe.
Awoniyi decried the fact that many Nigerians were dying daily in the course of irregularly migrating to Europe while several others were stranded in Europe, unable to obtain legal residency and obliged to return home.
He explained that many of the country’s citizens were stranded in the transit countries such as Libya where they were exposed to horrendous human rights abuses, adding that despite this, some Nigerians were still bent on taking the risk to reach Europe through the desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
He added: “These young men and women are mostly victims of human traffickers and smugglers whose main weapon is disinformation. Studies show that the majority of irregular migrants receive most of their information from traffickers and smugglers, who seek to mislead and manipulate them.
“Irregular migrants are often unaware and without defences in the face of the false information given to them by human traffickers. These smugglers lure thousands of people to undertake journeys without any preparation or knowledge, journeys filled with extreme hardships and inhumane abuses.
“Only the media can sustainably defeat traffickers’ campaign of disinformation and deceit by providing accurate and reliable information.”
Congratulations to the awardees
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