20th October, 2016
Ambode had on Wednesday sacked the Commissioners for Tourism, Mr Folorunsho Folarin-Coker; Finance- Dr Mustapha Akinkunmi and Transportation, Dr Ekundayo Mobereola.
PM News investigations revealed that Ambode showed the commissioners the way out of his government for various reasons ranging from insubordination, incompetence,high-handedness and disloyalty.
A top government source told our reporter authoritatively on Thursday that Folarin-Coker was sacked because of outright disloyalty to the governor as he does not respect him because of his affiliation with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Folarin-Coker was said to have even boasted openly that he is at par with Ambode and thus undermined his authority as governor, even when it was Ambode who tried to shield him when he was named in the scandalous Panama papers.
In the Panama papers, Folarin-Coker was said to be owner of a London property worth over N476m and situated in Fulham.
According to a report by the UK Guardian, Coker was reported as one of the famous Nigerians whose anonymous ownership of different property in London has been exposed by the massive leak of the Panama law firm’s data on offshore companies.
He reportedly owns a townhouse worth £1.65m in Kensington and Chelsea but shown as belonging to a BVI company, whose sole shareholder is Folorunsho Coker.
The report further noted that Coker’s lawyer said he had multiple sources of income and had always declared his interest in Satori Holdings to the Nigerian authorities.
With all these allegations in the making and with his alleged disloyal to the governor, Ambode sacked him.
Also, Dr. Akinkunmi’s sack was said to be purely on ground of alleged incompetence in the performance of his duty and disloyalty as commissioner for Finance.
A close government source told our reporter that Akinkunmi was not competent in his job as Finance Commissioner and that the governor, on several cases had to teach him on how to carry out his job being a chartered accountant himself.
His inability to cope, according to our source, cost him his job.
As for Mobereola, he was said to have been sacked because he did not respect the office of the governor.
A top government source said having occupied the office of LAMATA for over 10 years and his closeness to Tinubu, Mobereola was said to have brazenly disregarded the position of Ambode as governor.
He was even alleged to have at one time awarded contract worth several millions of naira to a contractor without the governor’s approval.
“He did many things outside due process. He approved contract worth millions of naira without the governor’s approval. The governor had to cancel the contract and tongue-lashed him,” our source alleged.
Investigation further revealed that there are still more commissioners who are not performing and are still in the governor’s cabinet.
A government source said many of them would still be shown the way out by next year as the governor is bent on having the right team to deliver qualitative service delivery to the people of Lagos State.
However, several calls made to Mobereola’s phone to get his reaction to the story were not picked.
But Folarin-Coker debunked insinuations that he was disloyal to Ambode, saying there was nothing like such.
Also, Akinkunmi did not pick his call when he was contacted to get his reaction to the story.