Osun Governor blames LAUTECH crisis on school management

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has blamed the problems of crisis-hit Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) on the insincerity of its management and workers.

The dispute over the institution's financial situation has caused a lot of finger-pointing between the governments of Osun and Oyo state, who both own the school, and the school's management.

On Sunday, Aregbesola issued a statement through his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Adelani Baderinwa, accusing the management of frustrating the governments' efforts to resolve the crisis.

He said efforts of his government and the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led Oyo state government were being sabotaged by "some members of staff and management".

He said the 'internal enemies' are getting in the way of auditing the institution's finances, alleging that some mismanagement must be going on.

The statement read, "It is worrisome and disturbing, especially in this recession time, to know that LAUTECH runs 97 bank accounts when the Treasury Single Account has become the order of the day. There are 10 Chief Accountants which is not so in other universities.

"More worrisome too is that LAUTECH has lost money in many distressed banks, according to the report of the visitation panel.

"It is surprising that a more viable LAUTECH with student population of 26,360 undergraduates paying average of N70, 000 tuition, part-time students of over 2,000 paying average of N120, 000; 1,560 academic postgraduate students paying N150,000; professional postgraduate students of 2600 paying average of N250,000; pre-degree, distant learning and other programmes cannot survive on its own."

Last week, the institution's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rejected claims that the school unions were preventing the audit of the school's accounts, as claimed by both state governments.

In a statement, the union called the claims a "deliberate misinformation and manipulation of facts".

Meanwhile, the school's Alumni has started a fundraising campaign to raise a total of 1 billion naira over the next three months.