Janet Ogundepo is a Correspondent, Weekend Titles of the Punch Newspaper.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and Language Art from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Janet Ogundepo is an experienced Journalist, skilled in Communication and Customer Relationship Management who ideate , pitches and writes Award winning feature stories for Saturday and Sunday Punch.
From 2016 -2021, before joining the Punch Newspaper, Janet Ogundepo produced among others, Original, grammatically sound and error-free articles that communicate brand value to prospective clients and the public, for Communicators League, an Online Network.
She was also Accountable for quality Control of the content published on Communicators League for compliance with Copy- right laws , story authenticity, fact–checking , grammar and style.
She was a Research and Administrative Assistant and Content Writer for Plexus Media Interlinks , a multi – media Marketing Communications.
What made Janet Ogundepo standing tall today, is her Undercover story Titled “Certified Dead Alive: Hospitals Where N10,000 Fetches Death Certificate For the Living”, in which she detailed the case of getting fake death Certificates in Nigeria.
Her investigation was prompted by a publication credited to the Pension Commission that people fake their own death, while Spouses do same for their husbands.
The Certificates are got from hospitals illegally, without following the due process for issuance of the document.
To get these, Janet went undercover to Three public hospitals ,a Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Health Care Centre, pretending as a bereaved relative in need of the document.
Towards this end, Janet was only asked to write details of the dead person which She provided on a piece of paper, and a fee of N10,000.
A death certificate properly filled in blue ink with doctor’s name, and stamp of the General Hospital then came from an undisclosed location on the hospital premises.
So, within a short period there, a death Certificate was issued for Esther Ojo, a fictitious name generated in the course of this investigation for a supposed living, while another was also obtained at a Private Hospital after the payment of ten thousand Naira to be presented as deaths. It was however full-hardy to obtain at the third hospital.
Giving the two death Certificates within a short time, without a medical report or doctor’s confirmation of death, depict the ease of getting important document in hospitals in Nigeria.
Janet, from the foregoing, you have demonstrated the best practice in journalism and exposed to Nigerians, activities of death Certificate merchants, hence you are being acknowledged by the AFRICA MEDIA DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, as the 2022 AMDF JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR.
CONGRATULATIONS.
