Buhari ‘Shocked’ As COVID-19 Claims Nigeria’s First Professor Of Criminology

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the death of Professor Femi Odekunle. 

Odekunle, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), reportedly died from COVID-19 complications at the Gwagwalada isolation centre on Tuesday in Abuja. 

The chairman of the presidential task force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had earlier hinted about Odekunle’s death during the team’s daily briefing in Abuja. 

But confirming the development on Tuesday night, Buhari’s senior media assistant, Garba Shehu, said Odekunle’s death came as a shock to the president. 

The deceased was the first professor of criminology in Nigeria and was aged 77.

Shehu said, “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.

“The President described Professor Odekunle as valued friend and a towering intellectual giant with an impeccable knowledge of his chosen academic field, criminology and in such others as governance and administration.

“His death is very saddening,” Shehu quoted Buhari to have said, adding that, “His lasting contributions as well as his charisma, wit and sense of humor will be sorely missed by all us, his friends and associates. May the Almighty repose his soul.”