Ahead of their 10year anniversary coming up next week, October 20, the management of Verbatim News Network Limited, Publishers of Abuja based Verbatim news magazine and Verbatim Online Newspaper, yesterday, announced
Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, Governor of Niger State winner of their prestigious Personality of the Year Award.
Two other governors, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State had a few days ago been announced to have jointly won the Governor of the year award. The award is an annual program that recognizes and honours personalities and corporate organizations for excellence and success in particular areas of business and vocation.
In a press statement explaining why Governor Bello was voted Personality of the year by the Board of Editors of Verbatim, Tobs Agbaegbu, the Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief explained that governor is a man of excellence in key delivery of democratic dividends.
‘’It is on marble today, a verifiable fact that Governor Bello has ,within his two term tenure as Governor of Niger State served with the fear of Allah, implemented dividends of democracy without discrimination and stood on the side of the people during moments of ravaging insecurity. He was also an instrument of reconciliation and peace in Niger state and with his party, the All Progressives Congress’’.
Agbaegbu explained that the Governor will be crowned Personality of the Year at a ceremony in Abuja to be chaired by Solomon Arase, a former Inspector General of Police , alongside other winners in various categories.
These include corporate award winners such as the National Examination Council (NECO), the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Nigeria Electricity Management Agency (NEMSA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE, and their Chief Executives.
He stated also that the anniversary of Verbatim will witness the unveiling of the maiden edition of a daily newspaper called Verbatim Special which he assured will be ‘’a special brand with unique style of reporting and news presentation’’, and a public lecture on Leadership Challenge and State of the Nigerian Nation.
Going down memory lane, Agbaegbu said Verbatim magazine was established in 2012 by former editors of Newswatch, Nigeria’s foremost investigative newsmagazine founded by four famous journalists, Late Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Gowon.
He stated that in the tradition of Newswatch , Verbatim has churned out many award winning editions since the past 10 years, and also publishes online editions.
It was in furtherance of the successes which the media group has recorded in the publishing industry that the management of Verbatim is now veering into daily newspaper publication.
