Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Dr Abiodun Olaniran has vowed that lecturers of the institution would not return to work unless their demands are met by the owner states: Oyo and Osun.

Olaniran who stated this in Ibadan while reacting to the appeal made by the Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi to LAUTECH ASUU members to call off their ongoing strike stated that only an honest and holistic address of the issues that forced the union to run away from the classrooms  could end the strike.

According to him, major causes of the crisis the institution is facing are chronic under-funding and months of unpaid salaries which has reduced lecturers to paupers adding that the survival of the institution is now a cause for concern.

He then appealed to the Governor of Oyo State to set LAUTECH free by “honestly sitting down to address all the vexatious issues adding that this is the only condition that would make the union to review its stand on the current strike action”.

He said, “While ASUU is eager to put this ugly situation in LAUTECH behind us, we are interested in a honest and holistic address of the issues that forced us to proceed on the current strike. It is gratifying that even the visitation panel set up by the owner states clearly called attention to this problem. Thus for the governor to be calling on the striking staff who have been reduced to paupers due to months of unpaid salaries is the peak of insensitivity to the plight of the workers”.