Daily Trust makes new appointments

The Board of Directors, Media Trust Limited, publishers of the Daily Trust newspapers, has announced five new appointments.

The appointments were contained in a statement by the company’s Chief Executive Officer/ Editor-in-Chief, Mannir Dan Ali.

Among the changes is the promotion of Hamza Idris to the position of Editor of the Daily Trust. He was until the appointment the newspaper’s Politics Editor. He succeeds Nasiru L. Abubakar, who has been elevated to the position Managing Editor. Abubakar is to be assisted by Nasir Imam, who holds the position of Deputy Managing Editor.

The Deputy Editor of the Daily Trust is now Stella Iyaji, who, until this appointment, was the Deputy Editor of the Daily Trust on Sunday. Furthermore, the Editor of the Daily Trust on Sunday, Lawan Danjuma Adamu, is now to function as Editor of both Weekend Titles, Daily Trust on Saturday and Daily Trust on Sunday. The erstwhile editor of the Daily Trust on Saturday Abdulkareem Baba Aminu is now to serve as the Secretary of the Trust Television implementation committee that is to actualize the national television license of Media Trust Limited.

Amina Alhassan has also been elevated to the position of Deputy Editor of the Weekend Titles.

Hamza Idris holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Mass Communication from the University of Maiduguri and a Master of Science (M.Sc) in the same field from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

He joined the services of Media Trust Limited in September 2005 as a Reporter/Researcher, and served as a correspondent of the newspaper in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. In 2010, he became the North East Bureau Chief of the newspaper and operated from Daily Trust’s regional office in Maiduguri. In 2015, he was transferred to the headquarters in Abuja as Group Politics Editor, a position he held until his recent appointment. Hamza is also a member of the Daily Trust Editorial Board, a Fellow of the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ, 2013), Alumnus of Professional Fellows Programme (Washington D.C., 2013), and Member, Swiss Peace (Switzerland, 2015).

On his part, Nasiru Abubakar was appointed substantive Editor of Daily Trust in January 2016. Before then he was the Acting Editor of the paper. He also worked as Deputy Editor and served in various capacities, including Acting Editor of the Weekly Trust and Deputy News Editor. He studied Mass Communication at the Kaduna Polytechnic and Bayero University, Kano. He commenced his Journalism career as a stringer with Weekly Trust in 2000, before he was appointed as a permanent staff on Reporter cadre in 2004.

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu joined the Weekly Trust (now Daily Trust on Saturday) as a full time reporter in 2003. After a stint as a reporter, he became the Entertainment Editor and eventually the editor of the magazine section of the paper. Baba Aminu became Acting Editor of the paper from late 2008 and was made substantive Editor in July 2010. In 2012, he was appointed Creative Editor overseeing all Media Trust publications, before returning to the Daily Trust on Saturday as editor in 2014.

Lawan Danjuma Adamu joined the services of Media Trust Limited in 2009 as a correspondent in Kano. And in 2011, he was posted to Zamfara State as state correspondent. He worked there until he was redeployed to Kano as Acting Regional Editor, to take charge of the Kano Chronicle title and oversee editorial matters in the North-West. In 2013, Adamu was appointed Acting Deputy Editor, Sunday Trust, and in 2016, he was appointed the Editor of Daily Trust on Sunday. Adamu graduated with a Second Class (Upper Division) in Political Science from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto in 2002. Before joining Media Trust Limited, he spent eight years in the Directorate of Army Public Relations (1996 – 2004). He also had a stint in the National Review magazine as a Senior Staff Writer.

Miss Iyaji holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in English Language from the University of Maiduguri and University of Abuja respectively. After graduating, she served at the Imo Broadcasting Corporation, Owerri for her NYSC scheme. She later joined the services of DBN Television, Abuja where she worked as a Reporter, News Editor and Producer. She also reported the Police, Judiciary and the Senate. She joined Media Trust Limited as an Assistant News Editor (States and Regions). In 2016, she was appointed as Deputy Editor of the Daily Trust on Sunday, a position she held until her elevation.  Miss Iyaji is also a member of the Daily Trust Editorial Board.

Amina Alhassan is a graduate of Mass communication from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. She is currently undergoing a Master’s programme in Conflict, Peace and Strategic Studies at the Nile University, Abuja. Amina was also a 2010 Journalist of the Year nominee for the Future Nigeria Awards. She is a 2017 Fellow of the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) and a Co-Chair of its alumni. She is currently the Editor of Tambari Magazine, a Daily Trust weekly special publication.

The appointments are with immediate effect.