TheCable

James Ojo, a journalist with TheCable, has been named one of the winners of the 2022 Hostwriter prize.

Winners of the award were unveiled in a blog post on Tuesday.

The Hostwriter prize highlights exemplary works of journalistic collaboration. The prize is open to teams of two or more journalists who have worked on a story together and are members of the network.

The award is held in honour of Otto Sprenger, the late German journalist and unionist, who was committed to supporting young journalists, collaboration, and social engagement.

It is organised by Hostwriter, a non-profit organisation based in Hamburg, Germany.

Ojo’s collaborative investigation with Chinedu Asadu, a former staff of TheCable, and Tunde Omolehin, was among the six entries selected as winners.

The award comes with a cash prize of €1000 for each of the six winning teams, and the prize will be shared among members of each team.

After the report, which focused on petrol smuggling was published last year, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced efforts to tackle the menace and weed out “bad eggs” within the agency.

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.

Omolehin is an investigative journalist and correspondent with leading Nigerian news outlets. His interests include environmental crimes, migration, conflicts, climate change, and open contract reporting, while his works focus on the plight of underserved communities in northern Nigeria.

Asadu is also an award-winning investigative journalist, and currently a Nigerian correspondent for The Associated Press (AP), who has produced impactful stories on conflict, migration and internal displacement, the legislature, the environment, health, and education.

Meanwhile, Niyi Oyedeji, a Nigerian investigative journalist, also made the 2022 Hostwriter prize list for his work with Sahar Mohammed, a Yemeni journalist.