Dissociate from ASUU strike, Oyo State acting governor tells LAUTECH

Oyo State Acting Governor, Bayo Lawal, yesterday, urged the management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) to dissociate itself from the ongoing strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Lawal gave the directive during the stakeholders’ engagement forum on the 2023 budget held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan (UI). He said the current administration had settled all necessary obligations.

The acting governor, who explained that the ongoing strike had crippled economic goods and services, which the state government has been working assiduously to improve with N200 million demand of the institution’s demand fully met, warned that rendering skeletal services thereafter would not be condoned. He said: “What does not concern us we should ignore. The ASUU issue is dear to my mind because Oyo State Government is not owing LAUTECH a dime.

“About a month ago before His Excellency travelled out, we held a meeting with the management of LAUTECH and leadership of the students’ union to say that this ASUU strike does not concern us.

“We have assiduously fulfilled obligations of governance to the institution. So, you need not partake in the strike because ASUU strike has to do with federal institutions and not state institutions.

“So, we pleaded with them not to be part of the strike because at the end of the day, the students are suffering?” Earlier in his address at the forum, the Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Prof. Musbau Babatunde, noted that the overall aim of the programme was to achieve extensive budget-performance.