The Governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, on Thursday, warned local government officials not to drop his name to perpetrate illegality.

He said the advice was necessary as “sometime around December 2023, I learned local government officials in each of the councils deducted N1m out of the money approved for Christmas celebration and claimed they wanted to give it to me.
” “I didn`t ask anybody to deduct any money for me,” the governor said.
I am not going to touch your money, but I won`t allow you to spend it recklessly,” Oyebanji said.
The governor spoke in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, while flagging off a three-day retreat for the council chairmen and other top functionaries across the 38 local government areas and local council development areas in the state.
The retreat was organised by the state`s Ministry of Local Government Affairs.
He reassured the newly inaugurated local government officials in the state that his administration would not divert nor touch allocations accruing to them from the federation accounts.
Oyebanji warned the chairmen and other officials against dropping his name to perpetrate fraud, saying whoever was caught would face the full weight of the law.
The choice is yours,” the governor said.
The Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Folorunso Olabode, described the retreat as a way of showing that the local government was strategic to the developmental plans of Ekiti State.
A resource person at the event, Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi, said, “The retreat is to build a framework for effective partnership between the state and the local governments for operation devoid of division so that the citizens could have value for their  money.