Members of the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS) and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Osun State chapter on Friday took on Oyo State government over lingering financial rocking Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).
Addressing journalists during a procession in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, NAOSS’ President, Comrade Elisha Oderinwale alleged that there was a discreet plan by Oyo State government ‘”to fraudulently take over what jointly belongs to the two states”.
He accused Oyo state government of playing politics with the future of the students, contending that the students’ bodies were compelled to speak out, with a view to resolving logjam in LAUTECH.
Oderinwale further argued that every activity and position of the Oyo State government had been characterised by sheer propaganda and falsehood.
According to him, “records in the public space shows clearly that it is the same Oyo State that has been sponsoring tissue of lies against Osun State, accusing it of failing to live up to its responsibility over the years, especially concerning the funding of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo.
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“At inception, the tenets of the joint ownership arrangement was that while Oyo pays salaries of workers at LAUTECH, Ogbomoso for six months, Osun will pay salaries of workers at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo also for a period of six months and vice versa.
“Can Oyo State government tell Nigerian students and the discerning public why it stopped paying salaries of workers at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, the only one known to law and recognised by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria since 2013.
“We have it on record that since 2013 to date, Osun alone has been paying these salaries, and as we speak, it has expended N16, 604, 510, 806.12. Ironically, within the same period, Osun has also committed over N9bn to the funding of LAUTECH, Ogbomoso. So, cumulatively, from 2013 till now, Osun has expended over N25bn on LAUTECH.
Oyo State should tell us it’s own level of commitment”, Oderinwale remarked.
Commenting on what he described as inequality in the distribution of assets between the two states, he maintained that while seven out of the eight faculties in the institution were located in Oyo State, only one faculty was sited in Osun, stressing that in spite of the “obvious lopsidedness”, Osun has continued to be alive to its responsibility.
“We, therefore, demand that Oyo State should henceforth stop unnecessary blackmail and propaganda and tell the public the true situation of things at all times.”
“If eventually, the two states can no longer run the university jointly, they should follow the laid down pronouncement for the division as clearly stated by the judgment of the Supreme Court in 2010 on the said matter”, Oderinwale asserted.
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