Former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, has uncovered the circumstances that led to the death of a member of the Presidential Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Femi Odekunle.
Odekunle, Nigeria’s first professor of criminology was confirmed dead on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed utmost shock at the news of the demise of Professor Femi Odekunle, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC,” Mr Shehu wrote in a statement.
The presidency, though, didn’t give further details about Odekunle’s passing.
However, in a statement on Tuesday evening, Agunloye confirmed that his ally of many years succumbed to the coronavirus after a 12-day battle.
According to him, Odekunle died at the Gwagwalada Isolation Centre despite receiving the support of some top government officials.
“It was Chief Joju Fadairo who discovered at 8.30pm of Sunday, 27 Dec 2020 that Femi was sick and in danger. We both couldn’t get Femi on phone for about one week and Joju decided to call his wife,” the ex-Minister of State for Defence wrote in a touching tribute.
“From that moment, we worked all night to activate the diverse circle of Femi’s friends. And they sprang to action within two hours. Since then, they worked frantically to ensure that Femi got the best care possible.
“Really, we all tried very hard but didn’t make it.
“Femi passed at about 6.30pm, Tuesday, 29 December 2020 of Covid-19 complications at the Gwagwalada Isolation Centre, FCT after a 12-day battle for life.
“When I spoke with his wife twice between 1pm and 3 pm on Tuesday, I could hear in the background loud heavy rumblings of the man struggling to breathe with great difficulties and excruciating pains even though he wore oxygen mask.
“As a matter of fact, Femi’s friends rose stoutly to his support over the last 48 hours but it was just too late. Top Government functionaries amongst them led by Hon Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola along with President’s Spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, SGF Boss Mustapha and two sitting Governors tore through bureaucracies and red tapes and pulled stunts but the damages to Femi’s health appeared to have gone too far for remedy.
“It is sad, very sad.
“I enjoin all of us to exercise great care and caution. God bless.”
A graduate of the University of Ibadan in 1968, Odekunle obtained his PhD in sociology and social psychiatry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in the United States, in 1974.
He was arrested over an alleged coup plot in 1997 despite serving as an aide to ex-former military dictator Sani Abacha’s deputy, Oladipo Diya
Odekunle lectured in different universities but spent years at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state.
