LAUTECH crisis: Oyo fulfilling its obligations, says commissioner

The Oyo State Government says it has never defaulted in funding Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, jointly owned with Osun.

Prof. Daud Sangodoyin, the state Commissioner for Education, said this on Tuesday while briefing newsmen at the end of the State Executive Council meeting.

It was reported that both states had been trading blames on the funding of the institution.

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Sept. 5 accused his Osun counterpart, Gboyega Oyetola, of delaying the payment of LAUTECH workers’ salaries.

Makinde, while marking his first 100 days in office, said that he was ready to ‘divorce’ Osun should it fail to live up to its responsibility to the university in order not to make the students suffer.

He also said that he would not shy away from a separation to forestall a recurrence of incessant strikes due to inability of both states to pay workers’ salaries.

But the Osun government had said while Oyo in 2017 contributed about N717.9 million, it contributed about N1.3 billion.

It added that Oyo contributed about N443.9 million in 2018 while Osun contributed N500 million to the institution.

Sangodoyin, however, said that Oyo State had paid up to date what was allocated to it, adding that it was Osun that was lagging behind in its obligations of funding the institution.

He said that last week’s timely intervention of Makinde prevented the institution’s academic staff from commencing another strike due to non payment of salaries.

According to the commissioner, the agreement was that Oyo would pay LAUTECH’s salaries from January to June while Osun would pay from July to December.

”What we heard was that Osun has not fulfilled its part of the agreement,” he said.

On the rehabilitation initiative in 100 public primary and secondary schools, the commissioner said that work had been completed in 40 schools and ongoing in the remaining 60.

He assured residents that all the rehabilitation works in the schools would be completed before resumption for the new session.

The commissioner further disclosed that the state government would soon return a total of N28 million to parents, being fees paid for their children and wards.

He said the governor had ordered the refund of the money.