A Non-governmental organisation, the Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, has presented awards to three COVID -19 Vaccines Champions for their consistency in identifying and countering negative narratives as well as sensitizing the public to accept the Covid-19 Vaccine.
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The Executive Director of CITAD, Zakari Ya’u at the Prize presentation ceremony held in Kano said the competition was meant to inspire participants to educate people on the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the Vaccine using the social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among.others.
He explained that the participants which were initially 98 but scaled down to 18 and finally three winners based on parameters used by the judges, are from six states, which includes: Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Plateau, Bauchi and Borno.
” Since we trained them, on daily basis these Covid-19 champions create messages, they enlighten the public in their Six states of residence using the social media.”
“Destiny Okayi Ameh from Kano won the first prize, scoring 94 points and awarded a refrigerator. Abdullahi Abdulhafiz from Plateau won the second prize with 92 points and got a Plasma TV, while Jamila Musa from Kano, won the third postion by scoring 65 points and got a laptop,”
“The competition sponsored by Mark Arthur Foundation is meant to counter misinformation, fake news and false narratives hindering the general public from having the basic awareness of COVID-19 pandemic.”said the Executive Director.
He said the competition is a continues one, supported weekly with stipends for data boundle.
The star prize winner Destiny Ameh said he is overwhelmed with joy promising to work harder and enlighten the public as the Covid-19 disease is still around the corner.
“I’m overwhelmed, I thought the prize will be something like a small phone but here I’m with refrigerator. It will inspire us to work harder in sensitizing the public on the Covid-19 pandemic and the Vaccine. Despite the fact that the.Russia/Ukraine war has diverted attention, the disease is still here with us,” said Ameh.
Jemila Musa and Abdullahi Abdulhafiz also expressed happiness on the awards promising to continue to put in their best.
