Resolve crisis, reopen LAUTECH, group urges management, ASUU

A group, the Oyo Patriotic Front (OPF), has called on the management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso and unions in the institutions, especially members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to resolve their differences and allow academic activities to resume in the school.

OPF made the appeal in a statement signed by its Chairman, Chief Jare Adepoju, on Tuesday, in Ibadan.

The group noted that the lingering crisis between the union and the school management is affecting the students and their academic programmes.

OPF explained further that for education to be described as being at its best, it must be timely.

According to the group, “LAUTECH students have been at home for over two months. At the initial stage, we thought the problem was because of the government’s inability to pay its subventions to the institution regularly. However, we observed that other institutions in the two owner states, Oyo and Osun, are not having the same problem with LAUTECH.

“Also, we investigated the cause of the closure and discovered that the problem is internal and this made us to believe that the problem with the institution is peculiar.

“We see nothing wrong if the management of the institution decided to use the internally generated revenue to pay salaries. It shows that the management is thinking outside the box to ensure that the school is financially independent.

“Though, the governments of Oyo and Osun had raised a panel of enquiry to resolve the issues but we are calling on the management and the various unions to sheathe their swords and allow academic activities to resume in earnest. They should consider the interest of the students as well as their parents to end the disputes.”