The All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) youth wing in Oyo State on Friday asked local government chairmen in Oyo State to disregard the most recent memo from the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters, Mr. Olasunkanmi Olaleye, asking them to support a university in the state.
The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), located in Ogbomoso, is the alleged institution.
LAUTECH was previously owned jointly by the states of Oyo and Osun until the state government of Mr. Seyi Makinde campaigned for its exclusive ownership with a pledge to pay the state of Osun a sum of eight billion naira over three years in the assets sharing agreement agreed into in January 2021.
In a move to establish a satellite campus for the university in the Oke-Ogun region of the State, the State Government brought a faculty from LAUTECH’s Faculty of Agriculture to Iseyin at the beginning of the year.
However, the APC youth organization questioned when it became the responsibility of the local governments to fund tertiary education in a press release by its Comrade Adebayo Folorunso,
Comrade Folorunso however appealed to the Chairmen to discard the said letter.
The opposition emphasized how the primary schools in their jurisdictions have gotten so bad and unwelcoming to students and teachers that one of the duties of local governments now includes subsidizing postsecondary education.
“The memo asking local government Chairmen to approve funding as supports to LAUTECH is an attempt to siphon Council funds at the expense of grassroots development.
“We see this development as rather unfortunate, misguided and unlawful act which would further impoverish our people at the grassroots and make worse their bad situation.
“We are calling on well meaning citizens of the State and agents of the Federal Government to call the State Government to order to stop travelling in unpopular direction.
“If the Chairmen give approval and append their signatures to this request to fund LAUTECH, it is nothing but pure misappropriation of public funds and all the people involved would be brought to justice in due course.
“Many of our primary school classrooms that are within the purview of local governments are yearning for attention and we wonder why the State Government is always using the allocation meant for the 33 local governments to fund the State government-owned projects.
“Our people can now understand why their roads are not motorable and why the poverty is widespread with attendant insecurity among the locals,” he stressed.
