The Government of Oyo State has approved a draft bill to reflect the new ownership structure of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, the State’s Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Prof Oyelowo Oyewo, has said.
Oyewo, who briefed newsmen at the end of the State’s Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, added that the new law, when it comes into effect, would reflect the multi-campus status of the institution, adding that the bill will be immediately transmitted to the State House of Assembly for consideration.
The commissioner, who addressed State House Correspondents at the Press Centre of the Governor’s Office, Agodi, Ibadan, alongside his colleagues in the Ministry of Education, Barrister Olasunkanmi Olaleye, and Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, also stated that the new bill, when passed into law, will replace the LAUTECH law of 2000.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Taiwo Adisa, quoted Professor Oyewo as saying that the State Executive Council resolved to present the Sole Ownership of LAUTECH University bill to Oyo State House of Assembly.
He said: “At the 33rd exco council meeting, the Ministry of Justice, presented a bill, consequent upon the pronouncement of the National Universities Commission NUC, bringing to an end the joint ownership of LAUTECH between Osun State and Oyo State, and vesting the sole ownership of LAUTECH in Oyo State.
“This made it necessary for us to have the existing law, which is the LAUTECH law of 2000 to be either amended or repealed. We chose the other route of having the pre-existing laws repealed and bringing in a new law to establish the LAUTECH University Law with sole ownership vested in Oyo State; and to also discontinue the practices and rules that hitherto applied to LAUTECH in the joint ownership with Osun State.”
He added that the new law, when operational, would deal with the composition of the Council of the University and make it a multi-campus institution.
He added: “We also made some consequential amendments to the composition of the council and, more importantly, empower the university to be a multi-campus institution with campuses established in Oyo State as the need arises.
“So, these are the major amendments which have been done but the law will now be known as LAUTECH Law of 2020, so that it constitutes a new beginning; the opening of a new chapter in the life of that institution.”
