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PRESS REPORTER
A reward for courage
Albert Ohams, Winner, PRESS REPORTER , at the 17th DAME
 If he had not stood his grounds to go ahead to write his story, this year's Press Reporter of the Year could have eluded Abdul Rafiu Lawal, a senior reporter with Tell magazine.
Colleagues, fearing for Lawal's life, had tried to discourage him from publishing a story, “Ashawo Mecca”, because of the possibility of being attacked by religious fundamentalists in Northern Nigeria who may accuse him of blaspheming Islam.
Himself a Muslim, Lawal remained undaunted and took consolation in the fact that as a journalist, he owes the society the duty of telling the truth regardless of whose ox is gored.
Published in the September 3, 2007 edition of Tell, Ashawo Mecca was an investigative piece on moral corruption focusing on the activities Of Nigerian prostitutes in Saudi Arabia. Ashawo is a Yoruba word used to describe a prostitute in the southern part of Nigeria.
The investigation, which lasted over ten months, saw the reporter going to the holy land of Mecca to see how the illicit trade is carried out and talking to those that matter here in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Lawal risked his life to the story as some of the prostitutes attempted to lynch him for taking their photographs. Again, he had to stand with the prostitutes in some red light districts at night for weeks.
Bold, assertive, the report was compelling in presentation and is an eye opener for relations of young Nigerian girls seeking greener pasture in Mecca.
Born June 19, 1976, in Jos, Plateau State, Lawal had his primary education at St. Michael R C M School, Nassaraswa Gwong, Jos from 1982 to 1988. He proceeded to the University of Jos Demonstration Secondary School between 1988 and 1994 for his post primary education and thereafter attended the Kaduna Polytechnic to study Mass Communication. Upon completion of the National Diploma programme, he gained admission into the University of Maiduguri to study the same course.
He began his full journalism career with Hotline magazine. He was at various times the magazine's Borno, Yobe and Plateau States correspondent. He joined Tell magazine in July 2000 at a staff writer (North East).
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