Osinbajo will no longer be handed Wole Soyinka Centre award

Damilare Famuyiwa 11:13 - 09 December 2019

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says Discos lacks infrastructures to deliver power to Nigerians [Twitter/@Channels]

Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism postpones Osinbajo's award presentation over Sowore's re-arrest.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would no longer be awarded as planned on Monday, December 9, 2019.

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), in a statement made available to the public by its Executive Director and Chief Executive Office, Motunrayo Alaska, announced the postponement of an Integrity Award presentation to the Vice President.

Although, the centre had earlier disclosed that it would honour Osinbajo with its Anti-Corruption Defender Award.

Having spent over 100 days in DSS custody, Sowore was on Friday, December 7, 2019, re-arrested barely 12 hours after he was released. [Sahara Reporters/Twitter]

Osinbajo, as stated by the WSCIJ, was to be honoured “for his invaluable work of overhauling the Lagos State judiciary, facilitating far-reaching reforms in the administration of justice in the state, his work of promoting integrity in the civil society and business in Nigeria and his consistency as a strong voice for promoting integrity in the country”.

But in a new development following the re-arrest of Omoyele Sowore, the #RevolutionNow convener, Nigerians have queried the decision to honour Osinbajo.

Amidst public outcry of the threat facing freedom of expression, the centre has now said it would be postponing honouring Osinbajo “to align with protests against the repression of #FreedomOfSpeech in recent times, especially the incidence between the Department of State Security and @YeleSowore, Publisher of @SaharaReporters, on Friday 6 December.”

The event aims at celebrating journalists from print, online, television, radio, photo, and editorial cartoon categories.