Ejiro Umukoro

Subsequent to the four days training, which opened the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) Fellowship, Ejiro Umukoro implemented a number of related activities for her leadership project — including training and mentoring interns on gender reporting and career path options in the media industry and Mentor-A-School project to promote anti-secret cult gang awareness in two secondary schools. She also trained members of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists on storytelling; gender balanced reporting and media entrepreneurship. The project has made much impact in the lives of youths and students, especially female. “Seeing participants discover the vast opportunity for career growth and self-development in journalism gave me the most satisfaction”, she recounts. She intends to sustain the impact through her media school, Lady E Language Clinic (LELC), and Get Inside Me (GIME) project.

In her undercover investigative story titled “Secret-Cult-Gangs – The Disturbing Rise of Female Secondary School Member”, Ejiro revealed how girls in secondary schools were being aggressively recruited by male secret-cult-gangs for sex, money and power. The story spoke to pertinent gender issues around female secret cult gangs and activities like violence against girls, sexually transmitted diseases, physical abuse, and substance dependencies, among many others. The story gained a lot of publicity so much so that government institutions are beginning to look into the case to curtail it once and for all.