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Renowned poet and winner of the 2017 NLNG Prize for Literature, Ikeogu Oke, has died.

Oke was said to have died in Abuja last Saturday night after an undisclosed ailment.

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 and Tanure Ojaide’s Songs of Myself: Quartet, to claim the prize after an intensive adjudication process.