The Senate has urged the federal government to set up a
committee that will consider the crisis bedeviling Ladoke Akintola University
of Technology (LAUTECH) to provide permanent solution by taking over the
institution.
Speaking on the floor of the senate on Wednesday,
Senator Buhari Abdulfatai (APC,Oyo) in a motion co-sponsored by 40 other
senators, disclosed the ordeals of the staff and students of the institution
ridden by constant strikes and unrest.
Sen. Abdulfatai said: “LAUTECH which has had the reputation
of being the best state-owned university in the country now has nothing to her
credit than the reputation of being the most strike- ridden university in the
country as the university cannot escape an academic year without going on
strike for 10 months or more due to persistent non-payment of salaries of the
members of staff.
“The fact that the university is currently in the middle of
a strike which has crippled the activities of the university for more than a
year due to the inability of the parent states (Osun and Oyo state) to provide
the sum of N4 billion to pay the accumulated salaries and arrears of members of
staff and thereby leaving over 3000 staff of the university wallowing in
economic hardship.
“The careers of over 34,000 students of the university are
currently under jeopardy turning them to social miscreants and leaving the
parents who have labored to give their wards quality education languishing in
pains and agonies for no fault of theirs.
“This pitiable situation of LAUTECH has pathetically shown
that the continuous joint-ownership (by Oyo and Osun States) of the university
by the parents’ states is difficult and it has become necessary for the federal
government to intervene and review this nature of ownership.”
The Senate accordingly resolved that the federal government
find immediate solution to the problem for the school to re-open immediately
while urging the parent states to sit down and talk on the issue of ownership
of the school.
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