BROJOL BLOG'S

Medical students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology have resorted to odd jobs like catering and barbing, following lack of lectures for 14 months.

Some of the students, who visited PUNCH Office in Osogbo on Thursday, cried as they recounted how the ownership crisis between Oyo and Osun states had put their medical education on hold.

The 400, 500 and 600-level students, said they last received lectures in June 2010 when the Oyo State Government, under Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, ordered the medical students to report to a yet-to-be-accredited teaching hospital in Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

Ogbomoso is the hometown of Alao-Akala, who lost his re-election bid last April.

Violence erupted in Ogbomoso campus of the university on Wednesday when some Oyo State indigenes working in LAUTECH decided to lock the gates of the institution against Osun State workers and students.

A statement by the medical students, who did not want his name in print for fear of being victimised by the school authorities said, “We have spent 14 months without lectures and this has prompted some of us to venture into catering, fashion designing, buying and selling and hairdressing.

“We engaged in these ventures hoping that in a matter of weeks, the crisis would be resolved and we would continue with our ambitions of becoming medical doctors. Little did we realise that there was no light at the end of our tunnel.”

Urging the owner states – Oyo and Osun – to ensure that they continued their studies at the College of Medicine, Osogbo, the students said the resources spent on them by their parents and guardians in the last 14 months were wasted.

The students added that the Faculty of Medicine built by the Alao-Akala administration in Ogbomoso lacked facilities to support medical training.