MESIOYE, AGARAU, OGWIJI WIN ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2017

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Mesioye Johnson is the winner of the 2017 edition of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) 2017 organized by Words Rhymes & Rhythm (WRR Ltd.) in collaboration with Something for Everybody Ventures (SFEV). The award-winning Ogun poet won the prize with a poem entitled ‘Probability’.

Mesioye, a graduate of Banking and Finance from the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, is a joint winner of the 2016 Green Author Prize. He is also a winner of the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (April 2016), and a finalist in other editions.

In second place is Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau, one of Nigeria’s finest poets. Adedayo, a trained food nutritionist and photographer has won several literary awards including the Pulse Student Poetry Prize and the Tony Tokunbo Fernandez International Poetry Prize, both won in 2014; the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (July) in 2015 and the Eriata Food Poetry Contest in 2016. He is the author of For Boys Who Went, a collection of poems.

Coming in 3^rd place is Benue-born poet Ogwiji Ehi-kowochio Blessing, a fourth-year student of the University of Ibadan who is also the winner of the winner of the 2017 edition of the Albert Jungers Poetry Prize (AJPP), awarded to the best poem from the combined top 10 entries of the monthly Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (BPPC), from February to September 2017.

Mesioye will receive a N20,000 cash prize while Agarau and Ogwiji will take home N15,000 and N10,000 respectively. In addition, all three poets will be awarded certificates at the Words Rhymes Literary Festival, Feast of Words 2017, scheduled to hold at the University of Ibadan on Saturday 16^th of December 2017.

READ THE WINNING POEMS HERE

The judges for the EOPP 2017 are Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, Oyindamola Shoola, and F. O. C. Ikwuemesibe.

Now in its 6th edition, the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) was instituted in 2012 as an annual Prize to give the much needed attention to Nigerian poetry and encourage young Nigerian poets to use poetry as a tool for social change.