Prof Femi Odekunle, Nigeria’s first criminologist dies from COVID-19

The first professor of criminology in Nigeria and member, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Olufemi Odekunle is dead.

PACAC is headed by Itse Sagay, a professor of law.

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The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha had during the Tuesday’s briefing of the taskforce ‘hinted’ about Odekunle’s death when he said “A good friend of this government just passed on at 6:30pm”.

Mustapha, however, did not named the person.

Family members and business partners, that were contacted, confirmed that, it was Prof. Odekunle that the SGF was referring to.

Mustapha had also said that while the PTF was having its closed-door  meeting, it got the report of the illness of the person and that discussions were ongoing to help the unnamed deceased hours before news of his death broke.

It was however gathered that late Odekunle, died at the COVID-19 isolation centre in Gwagalada, Abuja, on Tuesday evening.

Daily Trust reports that in July, late Odekunle made the headlines when he opposed the arrest of Ibrahim Magu, former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He had described Magu’s ordeal as a power play by blocs in the corridor of power and not in the interest of justice of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts.

A graduate of the University of Ibadan, 1968, Odekunle got his PhD in sociology and social psychiatry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in the United States, in 1974.