"This reporting aimed to demonstrate that point, and importantly, provide evidence of a worrying dimension of that failure. Its recognition gives a feeling that the goal wasn't misplaced," Mr Ekott said.
A PREMIUM TIMES report that revealed how regulatory failure in Nigerian law enforcement and judicial system has won second place at the 2023 Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.
The story, published last year, was authored by Ini Ekott, a former Deputy Managing Editor of PREMIUM TIMES who is now the Publisher of Pluboard.
The entry, titled, "INVESTIGATION: Inside Nigeria's shocking wildlife crimes and how culprits escape justice," showed evidence of systematic failure and the inability of Nigerian law enforcement and the judicial agencies to hold wildlife poachers and traffickers accountable.
The report drew from extensive analysis of wildlife crimes data and numerous interviews with top officials and operators across the country.
On Monday, the report was announced as one of the best entries in the 10 categories judged from the pool of 589 entries received globally in the award.
"This year, a record-breaking 589 entries in 10 categories were judged by independent volunteer panels of journalists and professors," SEJ said in a statement announcing the winners.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian journalist, AnuOluwapo Adelakun of TheCable Newspaper Journalism Foundation, clinched the first place for her coverage of the environmental practices of Chinese miners in Osun State, South-west Nigeria.
According to the organisers, the SEJ contest is the world's largest and most comprehensive environmental journalism competition.
The award prizes are $500 for first-place winners and $250 for second-place winners in all categories, organisers said.
However, the Nina Mason Pulliam Award for the "best of the best" environmental reporting will be awarded $10,000 to one entry selected from the first-place winners of SEJ's Awards for Reporting on the Environment.
"The Pulliam Award also includes travel, registration and hotel expenses (up to $2,500) for the winner, or representatives of the winning team, to attend SEJ's annual conference," the SEJ said.
Comments
"This says it all: 'No suspect, amongst them Nigerians, Chinese, Malians, Guineans and Ivorians, served a jail term over the last decade for illicit trafficking of animals. The government said it obtained four convictions in the last 11 years - three were awarded small fines," the award judges commented.
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They said Mr Ekott painstakingly documented the government lies about cracking down on widespread wildlife crimes. Through sometimes risky interviews with gang members and operators, the story resulted in new laws and an uptick in convictions.
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, Mr Ekott said environmental problems typically persist because of the gap between what the authorities promise and what is delivered.
"This reporting aimed to demonstrate that point, and importantly, provide evidence of a worrying dimension of that failure. Its recognition gives a feeling that the goal wasn't misplaced," he said.
About Mr Ekott
Until he left PREMIUM, Mr Ekott was the former head of the business and economy desk and previously held key newsroom roles, including leading the paper's investigative and standard desks.
He has reported extensively on corruption, human rights, governance, business and environment. He won the Wole Soyinka awards for investigative journalism and local reporting, and was amongst the global team of journalists that reported on the Panama Papers, the Pulitzer-winning investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Last November, Mr Ekott was named the best financial journalism delegate in the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa programme (Intake 2) delivered by the University of Ghana Business School.
Similarly, in December last year, he was shortlisted for the Fetisov Journalism Awards.
