The relative peace at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, may soon be ruptured as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution again threatened to paralyse academic activities if Osun State Government refuses to pay their outstanding two months’ salaries by September end.

The warning was issued yesterday by ASUU LAUTECH Chairman and Secretary Drs Biodun Olaniran and Toyin Abegunrin.

The academic union stated that the alleged refusal of Osun State Government to pay the expected subvention had hindered the institution from paying salaries of its staff.

Oyo and Osun States jointly own the institution but the issue of funding and management of the institution has been a difficult thing between the two owner states.

This led to a prolonged strike which forced students of the institution to stay at home several months.

Rising from the Congress held on Wednesday, ASUU resolved to put the public on notice that it should not be blamed if academic activities become disrupted again.

In a release captioned “LAUTECH: Trouble Looming Again” signed by the ASUU LAUTECH Chairman and Secretary Dr Biodun Olaniran and Toyin Abegunrin, the Union accused Osun State Governor of failing to release subventions since August to pay salaries of workers and making life unbearable for them.

According to the union, all entreaties to ensure that Osun State government pays outstanding salaries have not yielded any results.

The union disclosed that members are owed six years unpaid Earned Academic Allowances, unpaid cooperative deductions and unpaid promotions arrears.

“The problem of poor funding that brought LAUTECH to its knees in 2016/2017 is far from being over. The University, since it came out of that crisis, has been managing to survive with the new administrations in Oyo and Osun states struggling to release the substantial part of monthly subventions for the payment of salaries.”

“This brought some relief as the management struggles to attend to backlog of arrears through internally generated revenue. As a consequence, the University’s calendar started witnessing some stability. However, the whole story started changing when, in August 2019, the government refused to send the subvention for the payment of our salaries. All entreaties to the government to pay our salaries have not yielded any result”, he said.

“It was therefore resolved to put the government, the public and our students on notice that the Union should not be blamed if the on-going examinations and other academic activities are affected when by end of the month, that is, 30th September, 2019, the congress meets again to review the situation,” he concluded.