How to static compile when both the Dynamic Lib and static Lib are in the same path?

[jh224]

I'm running into problem of static compiling when both the dynamic and static lib are in the same place.

e.g. /usr/lib/libfoo.so and /usr/lib/libfoo.a

I've tried in the PRO file
CONFIG +=static
DEFINES +=STATIC
LIBS += -L/usr/lib -lfoo

It builds, but not statically

The only way to get it build statically is for me to remove /usr/lib/libfoo.so...however I want to avoid doing this

I want to use a hard path but can't get it to work. I've tried the following:

LIBS += -L/usr/lib/libfoo.a
and
LIBS+= -L/usr/lib -llibfoo.a
and
LIBS+=-L/usr/lib libfoo.a

How do I specify a hard path to a static lib in the PRO file?

TIA