Popular Nigerian Poet, Ikeogu Oke Dies Months After Winning $100,000 NLNG Prize

A sad news has hit the literary world in Nigeria. Renowned Nigerian poet and winner of the NLNG Prize for Literature, Ikeogu Oke is dead.

He died in Abuja on Saturday night after an undisclosed ailment.

His death is coming barely a year after the poet gained nationwide fame last year when he won the 2017 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his book, ‘The Heresiad’, a book of epic poetry.

The deceased was presented with a cheque of $100,000 (N37m) by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited.

Oke’s collection of poems entitled, The Heresiad, beat Ogaga Ifowodo’s 'A Good Mourning', Tanure Ojaide’s 'Songs of Myself: Quartet' to claim the prize after an intensive adjudication process.

His friends have taken to Facebook to mourn his demise.