The remains of the late member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Olufemi Odekunle was laid to rest after funeral prayer held at the cemetery of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Ilesa Diocese located at Okejigba, Ilesa on Thursday 31st December, 2020.
Femi died at the age of 77 on Tuesday 29th December 2020 after battling with ailments complicated by the COVID-19 disease.
The funeral service and internment were in line with the protocol put in place for the burial of Coronavirus victims by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health.
Pharmacist Olamiju Olasiji, Special Assistant on Public Health to Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola on Health, led government officials that included Mrs Funke Egbemode (Osun Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation) and Engr. Olufemi Omowaye (Osun Commissioner for Works and Transport).
Delivering the message of Governor Gboyega Oyetola at the graveyard funeral, Pharmacist Olamiju said that the governor commiserates with the entire Ijesa kingdom on the demise of the the first nigerian professor of criminology as he described his death as a terrible loss to the country and the state in particular.
The wife of the deceased, Mrs.T. Odekunle while talking to pressmen after the internment lamented that the Prof. Odekunle died from neglect after he had survived the coronavirus infection.
"After the treatment the last result of the test came out negative and certain things would have been done to save his live." She said.
Dignitaries that witnessed the funeral ceremony included Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Yinka Fasuyi, Prof. Olu Aina. Prof. Rotimi Tayo among others.
Professor ‘Femi ODEKUNLE after completing Primary Education at Otapete Methodist School, Ilesa {1955), secondary Education at Ilesa Grammar School, Ilesa {1962), and Higher Secondary School at Molusi College, Ijebu-Igbo (1964), he was further educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1965-1968) and Ivy League’s Universty of Pennysylvania, USA (1969-1974) in Sociology and Criminology, respectively. He trained at Pennysylvania on scholarship as a University of Ibadan Rockfeller Foundation scholar as well as Russell Sage Fellow.
Having taught Criminology and Sociology in the USA, (e.g. at Lincoln University) for about two years, he returned to Nigeria in 1974 to assume duties as Lecturer II in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he started the Criminology training program; 1975 (Lecturer I), 1977 (Senior Lecturer), 1979 (Associate Professor) and in 1982, he was recommended for the rank of full Professor which was formally conferred him, effective 1985. That is, he has been for almost 30 years. During the period at Ahmadu Bello University, he also served as Faculty Sub-Dean; Head of Department; Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences; Senate elected Member of the Governing Council of A.B.U; Government-appointed Member of the Governing Council of the University of Lagos; and Board-of-Regents-appointed Member of the Governing Council of Igbinedion University.
As a researcher, he had conducted studies into virtually every aspect of crime-prevention and control in Nigeria and has about sixty (60) publications. He has attended and presented invited papers in about a hundred (100) academic and policy conferences/seminars/workshops in Nigeria and abroad on the subject of crime-prevention and control, corruption, security and related topics. He has made significant contribution in community service, having served the Federal Government in several committees and has been member of many international professional associations. In 1994, he was detained on an allegation of participation in a coup plot but later found not guilty and acquitted.
He served as the first Director of University of Abuja’s newly created Centre for Corruption Studies for about two years (2008-2010).
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