By Ismail Auwal
A renowned Ahmadu Bello University Professor of Criminology, Femi Odekunle, has died of Covid-19 at the Gwagalada isolation center in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Odekunle appeared on headlines in the 2000s for his encounter with Major Hamza Almustapha (rtd) during the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission of Nigeria, popularly known as the Oputa panel.
Odekunle graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1968. He got his Ph.D. in sociology and social psychiatry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in the United States, in 1974.
The late professor in July had criticized the arrest of Ibrahim Magu, former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He alleged that Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice, is the arrowhead of the bloc that is not interested in President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight.
Nigeria is experiencing spikes of cases of COVID-19 recently, and the death toll has also increased.