Poet Ikeogu Oke is dead

According to reports from Daily Nigerian, the poet passed on at the National Hospital, Abuja where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Confirming his death, Denja Abdullahi, the National President of the Association of Nigerian Author (ANA) said: “He was a gentleman and a writer whose commitment to literature was second to none. We were together at the second edition of the Return to Mother Idoto in honour of Chris Okigbo in Awka recently. He will be missed sorely”

Oke hailed from Ohafia, Abia State and was married with children. He had a Bachelor of Art in English and Literary Studies from the University of Calabar and an MA in Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was also the author of Salutes without Guns.

In 2010, Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer selected Oke’s book – Salutes without Guns – as Book of the Year for The Times Literary Supplement. In 2017, his collection of poems -The Heresiad – won the Nigeria Prize for Literature, Africa’s biggest literary prize at $100,000. Oke’s collection of poems – The Heresiad – also won the NLNG Prize for Literature in 2017.