So yesterday, the Lagos State Government fired these three Commissioners, including Folorunsho Folarin Coker who held the portfolio of Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture.
The development was announced in a statement released to the press by Secretary of State, Mr. Tunji Bello in which the special adviser on Arts and Culture was directed to take up the post in the interim. The statement however disclosed no reasons why this drastic action was taken.
You already know it would be out of character for us to let this go without digging a little deeper. So deeper we dug and because we were already quite familiar with Mr Folarin-Coker and his pedigree, we started with him.
You see, Mr Folarin-Coker has been part of the Lagos State executive for a while. He served as the Personal Assistant to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu from 1999 until 2003 when he was then officially appointed to the cabinet to serve as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the governor’s Office.
It was while he was in office as Deputy Chief of Staff that he was appointed MD of the Lagos State Number Plates Production Agency. Apparently, he is a favourite of the Asiwaju, because he sponsored a full page Neswpaper advert to wish him a happy birthday on the 27th of July last year.
In 2014, former governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola appointed him as a member of the Lagos State Executive Council and Special Adviser on Central Business Districts and finally, he joined the current administration Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture until he was sacked yesterday.
But that’s not all there is to Mr. Folarin-Coker. He is above everything else no stranger to entrepreneurship. “Folly Coker” as he is popularly known owns the La Casa and Roberts cafe in Victoria Island. He is also a huge deal in the Lagos society scene. Apart from the fact that he and Folake Coker of Tiffany Amber were once married, Folly Coker remains relevant in the entertainment circle. He ran the huge One Lagos Concert and when Don Jazzy and Olamide had that row over the Headies award, we hear it was him who settled the tiff.
People ingrained in the Lagos society in this manner just don’t get fired like that. So we found ourselves wondering if Mr. President’s anti-corruption crusade is not visiting Lagos soon. Oh wait! we missed out a bit. The bit we are all here for.
So here’s our theory:
Earlier this year, Mr Folarin-Coker was mentioned in the UK Guardian’s Panama paper’s as one of the Nigerian public officers who own mansions in the U.K. 
The one that was attributed to him was a £1.65 million Fulham property. The Panama law firm’s data on offshore companies revealed that Folly Coker anonymously owned a London property worth approximately NGN 476million.
Now in August, the Federal government already appeared poised to investigate those officers named in the papers. It was reported that the Federal government was ready to investigate and probably prosecute the officers named in the report including senate president, Bukola Saraki, his predecessor David Mark and Funsho Kupolukun, a former MD at NNPC.
If this is true, and Mr Folly Coker’s property has somehow put him in the position to have questions to answer to he anti-graft agencies, then the sudden sack makes some sense. It would be hard not to think that the governor is against the investigation if he let him remain in the cabinet. That’s of course supposing this theory is holds water.
Considering the fact that all indications point to a rift between the President and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed, that would leave Mr Folly Coker open to being burnt even though his name in the report seemed to have bothered any one earlier. When the Asiwaju was still clearly very friendly with the Villa.
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