LAUTECH Crisis: Governing Council holds crucial meeting Monday

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, are hopeful of a resolution to the crisis in the institution after the Governing Council of the institution meets today.

The student union president of the institution, Bakare Olatunde, told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday night that there may be good news for the students after the meeting as the financial audit report of the institution, which the two owners of the institution, Osun and Oyo states governments requested, has been submitted to the Governing Council by the audit firm, KPMG.

“The Governing Council, management and unions will be meeting tomorrow (Monday) exactly 11 a.m. in school to discuss on the way forward. We, however, hope that the outcome of their meeting will bear fruit,” he said.

According to him, the financial audit will also be forwarded to the representative of the owner states as part of the interim report after tomorrow’s council meeting.

Similarly, an alumnus and one of the initiators of#fundlautech, Adebayo Adeyinka, told PREMIUM TIMES that aside from the fundraising initiative which will be 90 days old on September12, the alumni have met with critical stakeholders to resolve issues. 

“There is a kind of synergy as alumni are employing the students as interns instead of sitting at home. We have metand discussed with the governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola.”In a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Sunday night, the dean of students affairs, Lukumon Jimoda, confirmed that the governing council ofthe institution will meet on Monday and the preliminary audit report will be submitted during the meeting.Mr. Jimoda appealed to the students to remain calm as the outcome “s going tobe positive.”The institution jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states has been shut since June 2016 after the lecturers downed tools as result of the failure of the two states to fulfil their shared funding responsibility.The school had been closed earlier in 2015 just before the students were scheduled to begin their examinations.Subsequently, the two state governments managed to come up with N500 million to settle the workers’ salaries thus enabling the students to resume briefly and complete the 2015/2016 first semester.But the money could only cover the workers’ salaries for two and a half months, following which the workers again downed tools in June last year. Although it reopened briefly in February, there have been no academicactivities.PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that in resolving the issue, the studentappealed to the federal governmentto take over the school in June.In resolving the issue, the Alumni Association of the institutiondecided toraise N1 billion  to help the school solve the funding challenge that has crippled it which commenced on June 12.