Abuja — An exposé on a West African, internationally-linked, tobacco smuggling ring worth hundreds of millions of dollars; an undercover report from a Somali warlord brothel and the courageous publication of a Nigerian story that was under threat of censorship, have won the inaugural Pan-African Investigative Journalism Awards, extended by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR).

Emmanuel Mayah, working for the Daily Sun in Nigeria, spent months infiltrating a syndicate that smuggled tobacco from West African harbours to Nigeria. Mayah identified kingpins, followed up on truck registration numbers, obtained documents, photographed warehouses, and called Nigerian government structures to account for and explain what appeared to be protection of smugglers. "Going undercover with smugglers was already a brave thing to do, but it was the completion of the investigation with photographs and documentary evidence that made Mayah's story the best full investigative exposé", said Charles Rukuni, who presented the Awards on behalf of the FAIR adjudicatory council.

The Editors' Courage Award, extended by FAIR to an African editor who has published an important story in spite of pressure not to do so, went to Theophilus Abbah of the Sunday Trust in Nigeria. Abbah withstood many threatening phonecalls and even protestations from some of his own correspondents, who were scared to attach their bylines to the story, and went ahead to publish Nuruddeen Abdallah's "How Nigerian politicians are creating dynasties." The story -'a great story that should have been nominated for an Award on its own', in the words of Rukuni- dealt with the increasing habit among politicians in Nigeria to appoint wives, children and other relatives to political positions.

Runner-up in the Awards was Fatuma Noor of the Nairobi Star. Noor went undercover as a sex worker in a Nairobi brothel run by Somali warlords. "Not only did she get the story about how underage girls from refugee camps were forced to work there, but she also identified politicians and CEO's of important businesses as customers of the brothel. She carried out her plan with good evacuation planning and managed to get herself out of there just in time", said Rukuni as he presented Noor with her Award.

Because investigative journalists in Africa are usually underpaid and underresourced, the FAIR Awards are cash prizes. At the Awards ceremony, held at the African Investigative Journalism Conference that was held this week by FAIR and the University of the Witwatersrand, Emmanuel Mayah walked away with 5000 Euro; Theophilus Abbah received Eur 4000,- and Fatuma Noor Eur 2500.