Obasanjo compelled Oyinlola to trade-off LAUTECH – Aregbesola

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of compelling ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to trade-off Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, to Oyo State. A statement by an Assistant Director, Osun State Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Fayemiwo, said Oyinlola initially resisted the bid by the Oyo State government to take-over LAUTECH. But Oyinlola has faulted the claim of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala that he (Oyinlola) ceded LAUTECH to Oyo State before he was ousted from power on November 26, 2010. A statement by a former Osun State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice under Oyinlola, Mr. Niyi Owolade, on Wednesday in Osogbo, said Oyinlola never ceded LAUTECH to Oyo State at any point in time. The statement reads in part, “We want to state that Oyinlola, throughout his tenure, fought gallantly against any insults targeted at Osun State from all quarters over LAUTECH issue. “We are happy that even Aregbesola, for the first time, acknowledged this when he said that on LAUTECH matter, Oyinlola ‘stood courageously like a prince.’” Owolade also quoted Aregbesola as saying at the palace of the Olufon of Ifon, Osun State, Oba Almaroof Magbagbeola that “Obasanjo of threatening Oyinlola to trade-off LAUTECH, which was a joint patrimony between Osun and Oyo states since 1991.” Aregbesola had further said, “Let me tell you the secret of LAUTECH. When it started, Oyinlola stood courageously like a prince that he is. However, when (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo harassed him, he quickly appended his signature to the dubious agreement papers stating that he had ceded LAUTECH to them. “It is that dubious agreement which Alao-Akala relied on to say all the gibberish he had been talking about. This was where they faltered and shamed themselves. LAUTECH was established by a law. It was not a talk between two people. “The law is more powerful than an agreement. The agreement which Obasanjo forced Oyinlola to sign is not as powerful as the law which established LAUTECH.” “At the time of the signing of the agreement, Aregbesola described the authority of his predecessor as a nullity as the law did not recognise him as a governor who was incapable of doing so. He added that the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal in Ibadan which pronounced him as governor implied that Oyinlola’s actions since May 29, 2007 were illegal. But in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Thursday, the Special Assistant to Alao-Akala on Communication, Mr. Dotun Oyelade, declined to comment on the issue. He said, “We are not going to engage in any negative remark with our Osun (PDP) brothers and sisters because we belong to the same party.” By Tunde Odesola, Osogbo Courtesy Of: Punch