LAUTECH Crisis: Unions Appeal for Intervention of Royal Fathers, Others

Following the prolonged ownership tussle between Oyo and Osun States, the Joint Health Sector Unions of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital Osogbo on Monday appealed to traditional rulers, opinion leaders and pressure groups to intervene in the crisis towards achieving permanent resolution of the crisis.

Speaking at a press conference on the crisis which has culminated in the unstable running of the two institutions due to haphazard financing, the spokesman of the unions, Muyiwa Moronkeji, also urged stakeholders to avoid fanning of embers of discord further among the two states.

He alleged that since 2013 when the crisis escalated, Osun State Government has been solely responsible for the financial obligations of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo, which include and not limited to salaries and emoluments of staff, capital projects and infrastructural development of the institutions.

Moronkeji also contended that Osun State Government has been fair and committed to the joints ownership of the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo of which the staff members, comprising indigenes from both Oyo and Osun States, are treated without any discrimination or intimidation.

 

According to him, "Prior to the crisis in 2010, LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo had always benefited adequately from sponsorship from both Osun and Oyo State Governments."

Moronkeji noted that the Supreme Court judgment had pronounced on December 26, 2012, that both Oyo and Osun State Governments should return to status quo on the ownership of the LAUTECH in Ogbomoso and the Teaching Hospital in Osogbo.

"That any other teaching hospitals established in the name of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital apart from the one situated in Osogbo is unknown to the law which established LAUTECH in Ogbomoso and Teaching Hospital in Osogbo, and should not be reckoned with by both state governments," the spokesman of the unions said.

He also submitted that the edict establishing Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and the teaching hospital stated that the university shall be situated in Ogbomoso while the teaching hospital and College of Health Sciences shall be situated in Osogbo.

Moronkeji, however, urged the two owner-state governments to find lasting solution to the problem and channel it towards the smooth running of the institution to avoid worsening situation.