THE Nation’s Insurance Correspondent, Mrs. Omobola Kusimo, has emerged second runner-up at the 7th edition of the prestigious Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards in Nigeria.
Omobola was selected second runner-up in the keenly contested awards for her human interest story entitled: ‘10 Years After, Retired Policemen Yet to Get Pension,’ published in The Nation on July 30, 2014.
At the awards presentation ceremony held at Citibank Nigeria Ltd Lagos office yesterday, the bank’s managing director, Mr. Omar Hafeez, said three finalists were chosen from a total of 28 entries received from different media organisations.
Hafeez said the three finalists were selected by a distinguished panel of judges.
He announced Mr. Olowe Peter of BusinessDay as overall winner. Mr. Francis Ezem of National Mirror emerged as first runner-up.
The winner gets an eight-day Citi-sponsored all expense paid trip to the prestigious Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism for an international journalists’ seminar.
According to the company’s boss, the award was the bank’s engagement aimed at adding value to journalism. He said the bank was already thinking of taking the education aspect of the engagement seriously.
The Economic Officer, United States Consulate General, and head of the distinguished panel of judges, Mr. James Plasman, described this year’s entries as “really impressive”, urging Nigerian journalists “to keep up the good work.”