SERVICE BEFORE REWARD

 

 

We would like to invite you to a reception/dance in honour of Ms Ibiba DonPedro, the winner of 2003 CNN African Journalist of year Award.

 

The event will take place on Saturday 18 October 2003-10-01, 6pm-2am,

At : Lambeth Town Council Building

Assembly Hall (Acre Lane entrance)

Brixton Hill

London SW2 1RW

Under the Distinguished Chairmanship of Alabo Tonye Graham Douglas (Former Federal Minister of Aviation; Youth and Culture; Labour and Productivity)

Alabo Graham Douglas would be supported by several prominent Izon sons and daughters.

 

Ms DonPedro was chosen among entrants from 32 nations across the African continent for her story, ‘The Travails of the Swamp in a Bleak Landscape’.  The story is about the suffering of people of the oil-rich Niger Delta region in Nigeria.

 

Ms Ibiba DonPedro has won several awards in the past.  In 2001, she won the Lorenz Natali prize awarded by the European Commission for excellence in reporting issues of human rights, democracy and development in a report entitled ‘Life on the Harsh Lane’.  The report explored the deleterious consequences of oil production on women in the Niger Delta.

2000 was a year of double honours.  Ms DonPedro won the African Journalist of the Year.  She also won the Reuters-IUCN media award, 2000

(English-speaking Africa) for excellence in environmental reporting, in Amman, Jordan.

‘The Travails of the Swamp in a Bleak Landscape’ clearly paints an accurate picture of a people living in abject poverty despite the massive oil wealth in their habitat. Successive Nigerian Governments have raped, looted and plundered the wealth of the region without due consideration for the Niger Delta people.  Ms DonPedro brings her journalistic skills to fight the social injustices perpetrated by the Nigerian Government and the multinational oil companies.  Their collaborators continue to act against the interests of the Ijaws and other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta. The IPA and Ogele Club therefore feel that the Ijaw Community must honour its own.