Insideoyo.com has received details of the meetin1g between the #fundLAUTECH team and Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun.
At the meeting which lasted several hours on Monday, today, 31st July 2017, ways of resolving the lingering crisis rocking the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, was discussed at length. #fundLAUTECH, it would be recalled, was an initiative of some alumni of the troubled institution, set up to get fund for the school.
Commending the composition and inauguration of the Governing Council, which they said “will to a large extent assist in bringing an end to the imbroglio,” the team said they will soon make inputs that will be useful to the council and the visitors in the long term.
According to them, ”#fundLAUTECH’s position has remained that the university can be reopened in the shortest possible time if all stakeholders will shift ground,” adding that the team also “understands the sensitivity of the situation given the fact that there is an information lacuna on the side of government that has turned the whole issue into a needless charade.”
However, when the team suggested the possibility of getting a facility to pay the backlog of salaries so that the school can be reopened immediately, Aregbesola was said to have told them that “the forensic audit has become non-negotiable given that there is a need to take an inventory of the personnel, programmes and accounts of the university,” adding that “this will be required if the visitors will need to approach any financial institution for assistance.”
Recalling his past efforts, Aregbesola also expressed the readiness of the owner-states to go on with the overhauling, explaining that “the issue of joint ownership is non- negotiable and has come to stay. There is a Supreme Court pronouncement on the issue stating that the University remains a joint patrimony.”
Commending the #fundLAUTECH Initiative, Aregbesola, however, assured that funds will only be released after the audit report is available.
The team also appealed to all stakeholders, particularly the unions, to shift ground and reach a compromise with the Governing Council for the sake of the over 34,000 students whose future hangs in the balance.
At the meeting with were team members like Ropo Egbeleke, Saheed Adetunbi, ‘Tunde Ajayi-Ope and ‘Sola Kolawole.
