Lautech Students Demand Federal Government Should Take Over The Ownership Of Their School

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho are demanding that Federal Government take over the ownership of the school.

Students of the school took their pleas to the National Assembly with a protest where they informed the lawmakers that the over nine-month closure of their institution is taking a toll on them and their future by extension.

The prolonged closure of the school followed an industrial dispute between staff of the institution and the government of Oyo and Osun.

The leadership of the House of Representatives has however assured them that a coordinated appprach would be employed to actualize the demands of the students.

The protesting students were addressed by the Leader of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in company of the House Deputy Minority Leader, Chukwuma Onyema; Akeem Adeyemi; Dapo Lam-Adesina and Olusumbo Olugbemi.

He said: “When we received your petition to the House, we hurriedly left the chambers to listen to you because we understand your plight.

“Education is a priority for us in the National Assembly and we will look into this matter but let me bring to your attention that Hon. Segun Odebunmi from Oyo state brought a motion up on the floor of the House and a resolution was passed for the House Committee on Education to look into this matter and come up with recommendations that will guide the House because there are many unintended consequences that can come out of students absence from school.”

Gbajabiamila said despite the rigorous process involved in transferring the ownership of their institution the House will apply a coordinated approach to resolve the crisis.

“You are not fatherless or an orphan, you have a government with your interest at heart but there are complications here because we run a constitutional democracy, your institution was established by two state governments and from your request it’s not that easy for the federal government to take over a state-owned institution because we run a democracy but there are ways we can come in  because the welfare of citizens is our primary responsibility and issue of education is shared among the tiers of government.”

“I apologize on behalf of government because we must all take responsibility, since it’s about funding to improve learning environment we will urge the federal government to work on possible ways to step in”, Gbajabiamila said