Oke Ikeogu 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 and Tanure Ojaide’s Songs of Myself: Quartet, to claim the prize after an intensive adjudication process.
Oke, it was learnt, died in Abuja on Saturday night after an undisclosed ailment.
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