The founding General Manager of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Onuora Nzekwu, has died at the age of 89, the family confirmed on Saturday.

The author of the popular novel, ‘Eze Goes to School’ died by 4.30p.m. on Friday in his home in Onitsha, Anambra, where he had been living in retirement, a family member, Louis Chuke, said.

Nzekwu joined the Federal Civil Service as an editorial assistant at the Nigeria Magazine Division of the Federal Ministry of Information.

He worked as an editorial assistant from 1956 to 1958 when took over the position of editor-in-chief of the magazine.

In 1966 when the Nigerian civil war broke out, he transferred his services to the Eastern Nigeria Public Service and returned to the federal service at the end of the crisis in 1970.

He served as General Manager of NAN from 1979 to 1985. .Nzekwu wrote Troubled Dust, a novel that recounts the experiences of the civil war.