WorldStage Newsonline– All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi have congratulated renowned journalist and Co-founder/ Publisher of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, on his emergence as one of the four awardees of the International Press Freedom Award, 2020 by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Tinubu in a statement on Olorunyomi’s award said the announcement of Olorunyomi, as one of the three winners of this year’s International Press Freedom award of the prestigious Committee for the Protection of Journalists is a befitting reward for his untiring service to Nigeria he loves with uncompromising passion and to people-centred journalism.
He congratulated the Premium Times publisher for the award, thanking him for making Nigeria proud once again.
In the statement signed by his Media Aide, Tunde Rahman, the former Lagos governor also commended Olorunyomi for deploying the constitutional obligations of the Press, as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, to hold the leadership accountable to the people.
He said: “The announcement of social crusader, journalist and publisher of Premium Times, Mr.Dapo Olorunyomi, as one of the three winners of this year’s International Press Freedom award of the prestigious Committee for the Protection of Journalists is a befitting reward for his untiring service to the country he loves with uncompromising passion and to people-centred journalism.
“Committed to the development of the Nigerian people through their progressive liberation from the challenges of corruption, ignorance and resources mismanagement, Olorunyomi deploys the constitutional obligations of the Press, as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, to hold the leadership accountable to the people.
By placing premium on the welfare of the citizenry as the purpose of governance, Premium Times, Olorunyomi’s stable, conscientises the people and their leaders on the primacy of the social contract and the transparent delivery of democratic dividends.
“It is significant that Premium Times has harnessed the power of technology in executing its mission by using the website to make facts and opinions available to a global audience that shares the vision of Nigeria as a superpower struggling to manifest her natural potentials.
“Yet, this much-deserved award can only be a challenge to Olorunyomi to strive harder in his patriotic endeavour to bring power to the people by encouraging the responsible use of freedoms to make Nigeria a country of great pride and promise.
“I salute Dapo Olorunyomi and wish him many more awards as he devotes his life to the service of humanity.”
Similarly, Ekiti State Governor in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, described the award as another feather to Olorunyomi’s cap and a befitting honour to the renowned journalist’s years of commitment to journalistic excellence and press freedom.
Fayemi attested to Olorunyomi’s prowess as a first class Nigerian journalist who, through dint of hard work, has built global reputation and set a high standard in investigative and development journalism.
He said the 2020 International Press Freedom Award is thus an icing on the cake for Olorunyomi’s glorious career, having dedicated the last three and a half decades to the practice of the finest brand of journalism.
Fayemi said: “hearty congratulations to our own Dapo Olorunyomi on this recognition by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as one of the awardees for the 2020 International Press Freedom Award.
“This certainly didn’t come as a surprise to many of us as Dapsy has over the years demonstrated his penchant for journalism as a tool for development, freedom fighting and nation building.
“While we congratulate Olorunyomi for this honour, the challenge before him now is to commence a deliberate mentoring of younger crop of journalists in development journalism. This he owes our country and his teeming admirers as we pray for his tribe to increase.”
