More details are beginning to make it to the public domain on the infamous Lekki shooting incident that gripped the nation recently.
Managing Director of the Lekki Concession Company, LCC, Mr. Abayomi Omomuwasi said the CCTV cameras at Lekki Toll Gate stopped working at 8p.m. on October 20, the day military men allegedly shot at unarmed #EndSARS protesters.
Omomuwasi who made the disclosure while testifying during proceedings of Lagos #EndSARS Judicial Panel on Tuesday said the cameras stopped working due to network hitches.
Read also: #EndSARS Protests: A Fundamental Lesson In Democratic Governance, By Bola Tinubu
Items the panel admitted into evidence from the LCC boss were a portable storage containing the October 20 footage, a press release, pictures of vandalised equipment and copies of emails.
The LCC MD in his testimony said: “We never tampered with the surveillance camera, that is why we have footage until 8p.m. when it stopped recording.
“It was around 8p.m. that we did not get any CCTV recording. It stopped recording because of network issues with the system.
“The major cause is that we have the network that connects our cameras together at Ikoyi Link Bridge, Chevron office and the Lekki Toll Gate.
“What brings them together is resident at the Ikoyi Toll Gate plaza which has been burnt.”
Omomuwasi added that the surveillance equipment at the toll gate had been upgraded to make its surveillance footage capture as far as 1.75km and 2km, noting that audio was not activated in the surveillance cameras because they were used solely for traffic management.
The LCC MD said that no CCTV camera was removed hours before the shooting on October 20.
“Early in the morning of October 20 around 10a.m. we noticed that they started tampering with our equipment and we decided to harvest our equipment because they are very important, expensive,” he said.
He said that on October 20, the automatic plate number recognition camera was removed as well as other equipment such as laptops.
Omomuwasi noted that the LCC is 100 percent owned by the Lagos State government and its sources of revenue were tolling revenue and adverts on the road.
He said that the adverts were outsourced to private advertising agencies to maximise revenue, adding that LCC was not involved in supplying power to the signage at the toll gate.
Read also: #EndSARS Protesters Form Coalition, Initiate Process To Elect Leaders
Omomuwasi also debunked a social media report which alleged that LCC Chief Security Officer is a former SARS officer and was asked to molest #EndSARS protesters at the toll gate.
“We do not have a former SARS officer in our employ. We have dedicated policemen because of the value of our equipment and the cash we hold,” he said.
The LCC MD appealed to the panel to allow the company access to the toll gate to enable assessment of the damage and renovation works.
“Presently employees are not working, we are currently at home. We have not had access to the toll gate.
“We will like to appeal to the panel to allow us access the damage, attend to insurance and other issues.
“Any projection on the damage is just guess work. The whole tolling system is destroyed, it will take nothing less than six months to repair as we have to do procurement, design etc,” he said.
However, the Chairman of the nine-member panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, said that the panel would not grant the company immediate possession of the Lekki Toll Gate plaza, owing to the need for the panel to make another visit to the toll gate after viewing the footage the LCC had presented.
