Mr. Tijah Akpan, Executive Director, Policy Alert.
Abasifreke Effiong
Policy Alert, a non-governmental organisation working on fiscal governance reforms and environmental justice in the Niger Delta region has called for pitches from journalists who are interested in investigating crude oil swap contracts awarded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The Co-founder and Executive Director of Policy Alert, Mr. Tijah Akpan, who announced the project during a two day capacity building workshop for civil society organisations, media executives and community actors in crude oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta region, held in Uyo, said the investigation is a component of the the organisation’s project tagged #WetinWeGain.
He hinted that the investigation seeks to expose opaque crude oil swap deals in Nigeria using beneficial ownership and extractive sector data leveraging on recent reforms, legal backing and implementation of beneficial ownership information by Corporate Affairs Commission.
“The project seeks to utilize beneficial ownership data on commodity trading companies involved in opaque crude oil swap contracts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Nigeria since 2011, follow money trail, hold companies and state actors to account, and address related remedial issues highlighted by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative oil and gas audit reports on the period between 2011 – 2020.”
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Akpan said interested Nigerian journalists working in print, electronic, online media are to submit data-informed and human interest story pitches for the #WetinWeGain #OpeningExtractive reports contest, adding that Policy Alert will provide training and mentoring for reporters whose pitches are selected.
Story pitches for the contest should not be more than 400 words and should be submitted to wetinwegain@policyalert.org not later than than 11:59 p.m on November 27, 2022.
Entries for the pitch should include, name of journalist from surname, WhatsApp phone number, email, name of media organisation/affiliation, designation, URL link of affiliation, online line to at least one previous work sample, preferably related to the theme of this call and physical contact address.
