LAUTECH students stage protest

Hundreds of aggrieved students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, on Monday, took to the streets of Ibadan in a peaceful protest against the continued closure of the university, in defiance to earlier directives by Governor Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The university is owned […]

Hundreds of aggrieved students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, on Monday, took to the streets of Ibadan in a peaceful protest against the continued closure of the university, in defiance to earlier directives by Governor Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The university is owned by the two states.

The protesting students also addressed journalists, while calling for the immediate and unconditional reopening of the institution.

Governor Ajimobi had last Friday, in a statement made available to newsmen by his media aide, Mr. Yomi Layinka, assured the students that the university would be re-opened before the end of this month.

However, the protesting students, under the aegis of ‘Save Education and Reopen LAUTECH Coalition (SERAL-C),’ called for the immediate re-opening of the university, to save education in the state from collapsing.

Comrade Monsurudeen Omoakin, a 400 level Applied Physics student, while addressing newsmen on behalf of his colleagues, also demanded the immediate payment of all outstanding salaries and allowances of their lecturers without any increment in their school fees as is being rumoured.

He said the 26-year- old institution has inadequate hostel accommodation, learning facilities and laboratories, adding that the closure had nothing to do students union activities but was rather a direct consequence of the inability of the two state governments to pay the salaries and allowances of workers in the school.