The founding Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has been crowned as the best African Investigative Journalist at the 2023 Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ). The awards ceremony, which took place on Saturday night in Burkina Faso, recognized exceptional investigative journalism from 140 entries originating from 29 countries.

Mr. Awuni claimed the grand prize of the evening by securing the gold award in the television category and the silver award in the online category. His accolades included plaques, certificates, and a $4,000 cash prize.

The winning story in the television category and the ultimate prize, titled "The COVID-19 Spraying Scandal Initiated by President Nana Akufo-Addo," exposed the fraudulent and unnecessary COVID-19 spraying operation initiated by Ghana's president, costing the nation approximately $100 million. The investigation revealed that this spraying operation ran contrary to the advice of the World Health Organization and that multiple existing government contracts already covered the entire country for this task. The story provided concrete evidence that Ghana's local assemblies were equipped to perform the spraying but were sidelined to award a new contract to Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The "Licensed Sex Predator" story, which won the second prize in the online category, is a three-part investigative series that uncovered a quack health practitioner who used his registered practice to entice and sexually assault numerous women seeking treatment at his facility.

State authorities in Ghana apprehended the licensed sex predator, shut down his facility, and brought him to court, thereby putting an end to his exploitation of vulnerable and unsuspecting victims.

Ghana's Parliament recently directed all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to terminate their fumigation contracts with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the sanitation company engaged by the President for the fumigation exercise. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament characterized these contracts as a "waste of taxpayers' money."

Mr. Awuni expressed his satisfaction with the award, particularly regarding the story that earned him the ultimate prize, the "spraying scandal." He noted that many media outlets were unwilling to broadcast it due to Zoomlion's financial contributions to secure media coverage for the exercise.

The Norbert Zongo African Prize for Investigative Journalism (PAJI-NZ), named in memory of the slain Burkinabe investigative journalist, Norbert Zongo, seeks to recognize African journalists who conduct high-quality investigations into corruption, organized crime, human rights violations, governance, environmental crime, and terrorism across print, radio, television, and online media.

In 2021, Mr. Awuni was the first runner-up in the television category for his investigative piece, "Contracts for Sale."

Prior to receiving this award, the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) named "The Licensed Sex Predator" one of the ten best investigative stories in sub-Saharan Africa in 2021. The GIJN also recognized "The COVID-19 Spraying Scandal Initiated by President Akufo-Addo" as one of its most outstanding stories in January 2022.

"The Licensed Sex Predator" received a nomination for the People Journalism Prize for Africa and the One World Media Awards, organized by the United Kingdom-based One World Media Foundation, in the 2022 global awards.

Manasseh Azure Awuni is currently pursuing studies at Harvard University, having been awarded a one-year Nieman Journalism Fellowship. His previous investigative work has led to the imprisonment of government and private individuals, the cancellation of contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the passage of a law by Ghana's parliament.