Former Vice-Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Professor Michael Ologunde, has berated an Oyo State lawmaker, Mr. Sanjo Adedoyin, over his claim that he (Ologunde) attempted to divert the sum of N3 billion to Osun State while in office.
Professor Ologunde described the claim as totally incorrect, and that the lawmaker was only playing to the gallery.
The lawmaker, representing Ogbomoso South constituency, was quoted in a news report as saying that about three years ago (when Ologunde was vice chancellor), he had cause to use his legislative power to stop the management of LAUTECH from diverting to Osun State, an intervention fund from Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND.
But speaking in an exclusive interview by FrontPage on Tuesday, the former vice-chancellor pooh-poohed the claim, saying it was false.
According to Ologunde, there was no intention whatsoever to divert the said amount to Osun State, so there could not have been any use of legislative power to stop that.
He explained that as the vice-chancellor, he attracted the money to the institution through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, and the money was judiciously used for the construction of some blocks of hostels with 5000 bed capacity.
His words: “I secured the fund from the government and there was no time that I wanted to divert the money to Osun. The ownership agreement between the two states – Osun and Oyo – was still on at the time. I am from Osun and the university is located in Oyo.
“The man who spoke, although said he did not mention my name, but I was the only Osun indigene in the management at the time, so the allusion was obviously to me.”
Stressing that there was no time the management or he was invited or had a directive of the legislative house not to divert any fund, he said the money was already being spent before the dissolution of the joint ownership of the institution by the two states came up.
Ologunde added: “There was no legislative directive as he claimed. What he did was only playing to the gallery…
“The university had already taken the decision to spend the money in LAUTECH….
“The decision to spend the money in Ogbomosho was already being implemented even while the discussion on the dissolution was going. It was not even a case of stopping what was already going on.
“When the committee on dissolution came around, it met the project as having already taken off.
“The claim of the lawmaker is completely inaccurate. Everything he said about the money is completely false.”
