The Nigeria Sports Journalists in Diaspora at the weekend splashed N2m on the winners of the maiden edition of the Grassroots Award for deserving journalists in prints, radio, television and online as they try to encourage young and upcoming journalists in Nigeria.
Jacob Ajom of Vanguard Newspapers beat Abiodun Adewale and Olawale Olaniran to the print award, while Channels’ TV’s Cecelia Omorogbe was the winner in the television category.
Hassan Abdulsalam of Pulse Sports Nigeria emerged the winner in the Social/Online media category ahead of Samuel Ahmadu and Naifooty with Maxwell Lawrence the winner in Radio ahead of Dayo Amusan and Tony Bekederemo.
The organisers announced the winning prize of N500,000 to each winner while the national SWAN announced a token to support all the winners.
Speaking during the event that took place at the Media Hall of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the chairman of the occasion, former Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba, applauded the organisers for coming up with the award, describing the sport media as set of people that moulded him during his days as an administrator as he congratulated all the winners.
Also at the occasion was the national president of SWAN, Benjamin Isaiah, who praised the people in the diaspora for giving back to the society especially those in the media.
One of the winners, Omorogbe of Channels TV said it was a big surprise for her especially emerging winner.
“I never expected the award, I really want to dedicate it to all the media personnel in the country and I really want to thank the organisers and also all the people that we were nominated together, we are all winners,” she said.
The chairman of the organizing committee of the award, Gboyega Okegbenro, said: “Putting this event together, I can tell you for free, has not been one of the easiest tasks because this is the very first edition of these awards, a lot of the things may not look as perfect as they should be, but we urge you to bear with us, to run with us, and together we will do better editions in the future.”
Eminent Sports personalities like Dr Rafiu Ladipo of the supporters Club and Mr Godwin Kienka were slso at the occasion.
