Prof. Femi Odekunle, Nigeria’s first professor of criminology and member of the Prof. Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has died from COVID-19. He was aged 77.
Prof. Odekunle, an anti-corruption crusader, also former political adviser to ex-Chief of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya, died on Tuesday after spending about 12 days at the Gwagwalada isolation centre in the Federal Capital Territory.
He reportedly gave up the ghost just as the family was making frantic efforts to get him transferred to another facility.
Though there has been no official statement either from the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, where he was seen as a legend, or from the family, dependable sources confirmed the painful demise of the Ilesa, Osun State-born world-renowned academic to The Crest.
Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-1, also confirmed Odekunle’s passing during Tuesday’s briefing in Abuja.
At the briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation SGF, had said: “A good friend of this government just passed on at 6:30pm.”
Like most countries in the world, Nigeria is also experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 with daily cases much higher than those recorded during the first wave of the infections. In the last two weeks, Nigeria has been experiencing a surge even as citizens obey the safety advisory of wearing face mask, frequent washing of hands, using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, as well as social distancing in the breach.
Indeed, the PTF boss announced that within one week of Nigeria entering the second wave, 16 out of every 100 tests returned positive, while daily cases galloped to more than 1000 within a 24-hour period.
