LAUTECH doctors embarked on indefinite strike over alleged politician assault

The management of the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, has called for indefinite strike following a political assault. It was gather that Femi Onireti, the politician in question had earlier instructed his supporters to beat up a medical doctor while on duty which led to an outburst in the hospital.

The hospital said in a statement on Tuesday by its spokesperson, Omotayo Ogunleye, that due to the alleged assault on the doctor whose name it refused to give, his colleagues had embarked on an indefinite strike until Onireti tenders an apology to the victim and the hospital.

It said that Onireti, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party came to the hospital and started commanding the doctor on duty to place his relative who is on admission at the Accident and Emergency Ward on oxygen and take him to the Intensive Care Unit.

The management said Onireti’s aides thought a medical doctor was filming their benefactor’s unruly action. The aides then pounced on the doctor and beat him up.

The management said, ” While condemning the politician’s manner of interfering with the management of the patient which was brought to the hospital for medical attention, the management noted that such an act would not be tolerated.

“The politician was commanding the doctors to place his patient on oxygen and also instructed that he should be taken to the Intensive Care Unit. The politician, with the help of his aides, descended on a medical doctor, a staff of the hospital, thinking the doctor was filming their devilish displays at the A&E section of the hospital.”

“Owing to the assault by Mr Onireti and his aides, the doctors at the hospital have embarked on indefinite strike until an apology is tendered to the hospital and phones seized from the victim by the politician and his aides are returned,” the management stated.

But Onireti, while reacting to the allegation in a statement issued on his behalf by a media consultant, Busayo Olawoyin, the PDP chieftain said he did not beat up any doctor nor instructed his aides to do such.

The ownership of LAUTECH has always been a source of conflict between the two-owner states, Oyo State and Osun State especially after Osun State acquired her own university. The government of Oyo State wants Osun to transfer full ownership of the University to them while the other party disagrees. This conflict grew intense in 2010 under the administrations of ex-Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and his former counterpart ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State. The feud which was suspected to have been ignited by political interests was resolved eventually after series of intervention by notable political icons and the National Universities Commission in Nigeria. As of 20 November 2020, National Universities Commission (NUC) gives ownership of LAUTECH to Oyo State Government under Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde.