Tobore Ovuorie is a dogged multi award-winning investigative, digital-savvy journalist and documentary filmmaker with a niche for development and solutions-driven multimedia stories. She mainly investigates human rights abuses, corruption, health and regulatory failures.
Her investigations and multimedia stories are always hard-hitting, shake up the polity, and lead to policies being changed, as well as lives being impacted positively.
For instance, her human trafficking investigative story titled: ‘Inside Nigeria’s Ruthless Human trafficking Mafia’ which she went undercover for in 2013 but published January 2014, not only spread globally but was recently adapted into a film titled: ‘Oloture’ by Netflix and Ebony life, which was released October 2nd, 2020 exclusively on Netflix.
The film – a product of Tobore Ovuorie’s investigation – has received rave reviews and is currently trending on NETFLIX in Nigeria, Morocco, Ukraine, France, Portugal and South Africa.
Other countries include Brazil, Oman, Switzerland, Qatar, Romania, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Russia, amongst others.
Ms. Ovuorie’s hard-hitting human trafficking investigation demonstrates how media can be used as a vehicle for advocacy. This work has been instrumental in creating the actual human trafficking narrative globally, breaking the misinformation that surrounds human trafficking in Nigeria and other parts of the world and illustrates how the illicit trade has sunk so deeply into the society.
Another of her human trafficking story titled: “Rejected, stigmatized, trafficking survivors shun Libyan horrible experiences, ready to travel again”, published April 2018 in The Nation Newspaper, led to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) being completely responsible for all the medical and surgical expenses of one of the Nigerian ladies Ms Ovuorie wrote about in the story. She was trafficked to Libya and set ablaze by the Libyan woman she worked for in Tripoli.
Ms. Ovuorie is the 2021 recipient of the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, 2021. She is the second female but presently the only African and Nigerian recipient of the award which honours a person or initiative promoting freedom of expression and human rights in an exceptional way.
The award panel/board chose Ms. Ovuorie for the global recognition because of the courageous stance she is taking for the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media. Her overall investigative work, and her undercover report on human trafficking in particular, led to the decision by DW’s Executive Board to award the prize to Ms. Ovuorie this year. Her exceptional commitment even in the face of danger which her work involves, was highly commended.
Consequently, March 2020, Ms. Ovuorie was named one of Nigeria’s most powerful, influential and inspiring women on the Leading Ladies Africa #100 Women 2020 list. The list recognizes 100 trailblazing Nigerian women who have made an impact in the fields of advocacy, business, politics and the corporate sector.
Her innovative five-part series on “How Nigeria ‘Kills’ Children Living With HIV” demonstrates how media can be used as a vehicle for advocacy. This work has been instrumental in breaking the silence that surrounds HIV in the education sector and illustrates how Stigma and discrimination still prevail for children living with HIV in Nigeria.
Consequently, Ms. Ovuorie was awarded/made a United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Hero, June 10th, 2019. She is the only Nigerian journalist who is a PEPFAR hero.
October 2019, Ms. Ovuorie was declared Winner, Best Journalist, Human Rights Reporting, West Africa Media Excellence Awards 2019.
December 2018, she got an award from the UNAIDS and National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) for her “extraordinary work and dedication in the field of journalism in HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
October 2018, wife to Nigeria’s President, Dr. (Mrs.) Aisha Buhari presented the Future Assured Merit Award to her in recognition of her “courageous and outstanding performance in investigative journalism.”
Ms. Ovuorie is a 2016 alumna of the keenly contested Chimamanda Adichie’s Farafina Creative Writing Residential Workshop. And she edited, produced and published Nigeria’s first human trafficking anthology in 2016. It is titled: ‘I Am Not To Be Sold!’ She gives the book to secondary school students for free to help them understand human trafficking and curb the inhumane trade of persons.
Tobore is currently working on some gender, HIV, mental health and human trafficking series in the form of research, podcasts, short-films, and documentary films. She has directed 10 documentary films.
She is the 2013 Humanitarian Reporter of the year, Rotary International, District 9110, Nigeria.
In 2012, she won the Wole Soyinka Award For Investigative Journalism, Health Category. In 2014, she was the winner, Report Women category of same award.
Ms. Ovuorie has to her credit several other awards across different spheres of life including investigative journalism, such as maternal/child health, disease prevention & control, conflict prevention & resolution, amongst others.
Ms. Ovuorie is passionate about educating the public about human trafficking, HIV/AIDS and mental health issues, particularly through documentary films. These are very familiar and personal paths to and for her. She is a human trafficking survivor (as an undercover journalist who infiltrated trafficking rings), had been on anti-retroviral and came down with mental health issues as the aftermath of her 2013 undercover investigative work on human trafficking in Nigeria.
Her educational background in English and Literary studies, journalism, broadcasting and a Masters degree in Psychology has given her a broad base from which to approach many topics.
She is on the Board Of Trustees of Media Initiative Against Human trafficking and Women Rights Abuse, a not to profit organization based in Nigeria.
She is also a poet, storyteller, ex- columnist and playwright and was a radio presenter for ten years. She presented a live phone-in radio show on EKO 89.75 for ten years. She published her first book at the age of sixteen and was president of her high school’s press club and literary and debating society respectively at age fourteen and handed over at sixteen when leaving high school for the university.
She is a speaker at local and international events and speaks mainly on human trafficking, gender issues and investigative journalism.