Former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr. Olu Agunloye, has given a vivid description of the last-ditch battle to save Prof. Femi Odekunle, Nigeria’s First Professor of Criminology, anti-corruption crusader and a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, who succumbed to COVID-19 Tuesday evening.
Prof. Odekunle, former Political Adviser to ex-Chief of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya, died at the Gwagwalada isolation centre as his family and powerful friends concluded plans to get him transferred to another facility.
The Ilesa, Osun State-born world renowned academic, was aged 77.
In a statement titled: Prof Femi Odekunle: Where is he?, Agunloye, also a former former Minister of State for Defence (Navy), revealed the frantic efforts made by two state governors, Mr. Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Minister for Interior, Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, worked their fingers to the bones to get Odekunle off the icy clutches of death.
“It was Chief Joju Fadairo who discovered at 8.30pm of Sunday, 27 Dec 2020, that Femi was sick and in danger,” Agunloye begins. “We both couldn’t get Femi on phone for about one week and Joju decided to call his wife.
“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 6.30p.m., 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 1 pm 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.”
