Ramon’s story, titled “Father of Briton searching for Nigerian roots died 1981 after car accident,” published March last year, was shortlisted in the World 1 category of the award, which received entries in about nine languages across 12 regions of the world.
Ramon’s report helped a 68-year-old mixed-raced Briton, Paul Bolton, to unravel, in three days, the identity of his Nigerian father, who he had searched for to no avail for 29 years.
Bolton was born in 1954 by a British young lady to a Nigerian young man, who travelled to England for studies. He was conceived out of wedlock by the white mum, who was 19 years old at the time. The mum’s parents rejected the dad, being a black man and for putting their daughter in the family way out of wedlock. They cut off the relationship between them and took the baby to an orphanage soon after he was born.
The baby grew up without knowing his parents and at adulthood when he began to ask questions, his mother told him she did not wish to see him again and would not help him locate his father.
After searching for 29 years without any headway, he reached out to PUNCH Newspapers and Ramon undertook an investigation that helped to reveal his father’s identity and his half siblings.
The organisers of the prestigious True Story Award announced in a statement that they received over 900 entries from 95 countries around the world, with Ramon being among the 94 journalists eventually shortlisted.
According to the statement, the jury arrived at the shortlist after assessing all the entries for “relevance, research intensity, text design, journalistic truthfulness and impact.”
The statement said the winners will be unveiled later this year and will be honoured at an award ceremony in Bern, Switzerland in June.
Ramon is a recipient of Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, Nigeria Media Merit Awards and his works have also earned recognition in the West African Media Excellence Conference and Awards in Ghana as well as Wole Soyinka Awards for Investigative Reporting.
