By Samuel Malik

Nigeria’s leading investigative newspaper, PREMIUM TIMES, was among a host of media organisations around the world, including the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ, French Le Monde, and The Guardian of U.K., that on Thursday won the ‘Investigation of the Year’ award at the Global Editor’s Network Data Journalism Awards in Barcelona, Spain.

The award was for the cutting-edge investigations that resulted from painstakingly sieving through massive data from the Luxembourg Leak and Swiss Leaks project, leading to exposures of corruption involving highly placed organisations and individuals, including Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

“In the Luxembourg Leaks investigation, ICIJ and its partners used secret documents to report and expose the backroom deals that allowed more than 370 companies – including Disney, IKEA, Shire and Deutsche Bank – to avoid billions of euros in taxes on profits they channeled through Luxembourg.

“The Swiss Leaks project was based on a trove of 60,000 leaked files that revealed how the Swiss branch of one of the world’s biggest banks, HSBC, profited from doing business with tax dodgers and criminals around the world,” a press release issued by the ICIJ and PREMIUM TIMES” said.

PREMIUM TIMES, which began publishing in 2011, was the only Nigerian media organisation invited to participate in the projects. The newspaper is reputed for ground-breaking and investigative journalism and has over the years exposed corruption in high places in both private and public sectors in Nigeria.

“(We) felt honoured and privileged to be part of a group of intrepid and committed journalists and publications around the world holding the rich and powerful to account,” Musikilu Mojeed, the paper’s managing editor, said on Friday.

“ICIJ has found in PREMIUM TIMES a worthy partner. So far, we have worked together on three ground-breaking investigations and we are poised to do more in the months and years ahead.”