The Federal government has resolved the over twenty years old crisis between Oyo and Osun State governments over the ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH.
At a briefing in Abuja, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed said the governors of the two states agreed to handover the university structure and management in Ogbomosho to Oyo and the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo in Osun State.
The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology was established in 1990, by the old Oyo State government with a campus in Ogbomosho and the teaching hospital in Osogbo.
Trouble over the ownership of the university began barely a year after the establishment of Osun State in 1991; marking the beginning of an ownership crisis that has rocked the university for more than two decades.
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The crisis has persisted despite the establishment of several committees and retreats aimed at resolving the Conflict.
The latest was a four day retreat held last week in Lagos after a tripartite committee submitted its report.
The tripartite committee had undertaken the re-evaluation and updating of the asset and liability, forensic audit of LAUTECH University in Ogbomosho and the University Teaching hospital in Osogbo as well as the delineation of assets and liabilities for sharing by the two owner states of Oyo and osun.
A few issues however like what becomes of the two structures remained unresolved.
But under the new arrangement; the two facilities according to Professor Rasheed will operate as autonomous campuses; raising hope the management, staff and students of LAUTECH will return to full academics after years of protracted ownership.
( Editor: Omor Bazuaye)
