Nigeria Content Online

The crisis rocking
the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho,
yesterday took a new turn, following the directive of the Oyo State
House of Assembly that staff of the institution who are Oyo State
indigenes should report at the newly established teaching hospital of
the university in Ogbomosho, Oyo State.

In compliance with
the directive, workers who are indigenes of Oyo State at the teaching
hospital arm of the university in Osogbo withdrew their services en
mass to relocate to Ogbomosho.

About ten 18-seater
buses and some private cars left the premises of the teaching hospital,
Osogbo, at about 9.00am yesterday, to report in Ogbomoso.

The university,
which was established in 1990, is jointly owned by Oyo and Osun
governments. Trouble started last year when the Oyo State government
started the construction of another teaching hospital for the
university at Ogbomoso, which prompted the Osun State government to
express fear over the action.

The crisis was
debated at the Oyo State House of Assembly last Tuesday, leading to its
directive that the state government should disengage from the joint
ownership of the institution.

The house also
directed all its indigenes working in LAUTECH Teaching Hospital,
Osogbo, to report yesterday to Ogbomoso, for further directive from the
management of the institution.

Act of illegality

It also resolved
that all academic staff members of the University Teaching Hospital and
College of Health Sciences, Osogbo, who are non-indigenes of Oyo State,
and are willing to take up employment with the management of LAUTECH
should also report to the management at Ogbomoso yesterday.

It was gathered
that the house took the decision as part of the state’s moves to severe
joint ownership of LAUTECH with Osun State.