LAUTECH’s Unpaid Wages: As ASUU Threatens To Disrupt Academic Activities, Bello Sheriff Digs Into The Hidden Issues

September 28, 2019 Greg Abolo

The Oasis Reporters

September 28, 2019

Gov. Makinde of Oyo State (left), Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State.

Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde spoke on the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho (LAUTECH) crisis recently, that being a defaulter co-owner, Osun State can not be said to be a really serious owner State, Many uninformed pro-APC comrades started spewing rubbish while defending the debtor Osun State.

Here is a university where I graduated from and served at the apex height of its Student’s Union government, so I am naturally concerned.
I did my discreet investigations and consulted some of the stakeholders on the campus. The result I got is that Oyo State is saddled with the augmentation and offsetting of the wages of Staff of the university for the first 6 months this year 2019 (January to June 2019), while their Osun State counterpart will take care of July to December 2019.

I found out that the Oyo State government has not missed a month without supporting Lautech for the 6 months she was obliged to shoulder the responsibility of paying wages at the university. This is the breakdown of what LAUTECH received in monies from the responsive regimes in Oyo State :
January 2019 – #74 Million
February 2019 -#74 Million
March 2019 -#74 Million
April 2019 – #295 Million
May 2019 – #295 Million
June 2019 – #295 Million.

By July Osun State should continue to offer support from where Oyo State stopped. Suddenly, “epilepsy” set in. And since July till date, the APC Government in Osun State managed to pay just one month subvention to Lautech. This is the third month running without fiscal adherence by the Oyetola regime.

The question therefore is: Who is killing LAUTECH, between Engineer Seyi Makinde and Mr Gboyega Oyetola? Is it PDP or APC that is responsible for LAUTECH’s woes? We should all be ashamed that this Osun State Government is not making us to be a truly responsible owner State in the joint ownership of Lautech.

May God help Lautech.

In another development, members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH), have threatened to frustrate academic activities, especially the ongoing examination in the institution, if the two-month salary arrears owed them were not paid.

Chairman and Secretary of the union, Dr. Biodun Olaniran and Dr. Toyin Abegunrin, disclosed this in a statement they issued at the end of a congress held by academic staff of LAUTECH, midweek.

The institution is jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states, which makes the university to have two visitors, who are Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Gboyega Oyetola (Osun).

The union, however, said Oyo State had fulfilled its own part by ensuring payment of salaries of workers in LAUTECH from January to June 2019. It said payment of salaries from July to December is the responsibility of Osun State, adding that Governor Oyetola only released a subvention that saw to the payment of salaries of staff in July this year, adding that Osun State still owes subventions for August and September 2019.