Gbenro Adesina
A member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Femi Odekunle, has died at the COVID-19 Isolation Center in Gwagwalada, Abuja, on Tuesday December 29, 2020.
Odekunle, 77, was Nigeria’s first Professor of Criminology.
Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, seemingly made a veiled reference to his demise at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing, saying “A good friend of this government just passed on at 6:30pm”.
Odekunle graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1968, and got his PhD in Sociology and Social Psychiatry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States, in 1974.
He lectured at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in Kaduna, and other universities. He was Head of Department of Sociology at ABU, and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the same Institution. He was a Member of Council of the University of Lagos, and a member of the ASUU/FG Negotiating Team.
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed shock at the demise.
Buhari, in a statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, described Odekunle as a valued friend and a towering intellectual giant with an impeccable knowledge of his chosen academic field.
“His death is very saddening. His lasting contributions as well as his charisma, wit and sense of humor will be sorely missed by all of us, his friends and associates. May the Almighty repose his soul,” he said.
