Winner Of 2017 NLNG Prize, Ikeogu Oke Is Dead

The 2017 winner of the NLNG- sponsored The Nigeria Prize for Literature, Ikeogu Oke, has died in Abuja.

Ikeogu died on Saturday at the National Hospital after a brief illness.

He was declared winner for his book, ‘The Heresiad’.

In a statement on Sunday, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Abuja chapter signed by Alex Enemanna, public relations officer, he said; “we regret to announce to you the sudden death of one of our own Ikeogu Ike in the late hours of Saturday November 24, 2018.

“His death came after a brief illness at the National Hospital Abuja.

“The EXCO also expresses condolences to the family of the award winning late Ike and pray that the soul of the departed rests in peace.

Out of 184 entries received for this year’s prize which was pruned down to final three, Oke won the prestigious prize by beating two other contenders, Ogaga Ifowodo (A Good Mourning) and Tanure Ojaide (Songs of myself: Quartet).

Oke’s The Heresiad, published by Kraft Books Ltd, employs the epic form in questioning power and freedom.

It probes metaphorically the inner workings of societies and those who shape them. Oke is a writer, poet and journalist.

He studied at the Universities of Calabar, Ibadan and Nigeria. His creative works include ‘Salutes Without Guns’, ‘The Tortoise and the Princess’, ‘The Lion and the Monkey’, ‘In the Wings of Waiting’ and ‘Where I was Born’.

In 2010, Nadine Gordimer, the winner of the 1991 Noble Prize in Literature, selected Salutes without Guns, his second collection of poems, as her Book of the Year for the Times Literary Supplement.