Managing Director Lekki Concession Company (LCC) Abayomi Omomuwa, has said the company’s Closed Circuit Camera mounted at Lekki Toll Gate stopped at 8.00pm during the ENDSARS protest on the night of Tuesday October 20, 2020.
The company made the submission Tuesday while appearing before the panel of inquiry set up by the Lagos state government to probe alleged police brutality.
The panel has the mandate of probing the Lekki shootings as well as complaints of alleged human rights abuses against members of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Soldiers reportedly shot live bullets to disperse the protesters who had camped at the Lekki toll gate plaza, following the imposition of a 24-hour curfew by the state government.
Despite rebuttal from the military authority, condemnations have continued to trail the alleged killings.
Company’s submission
Testifying before the panel, LCC, operator of the toll gate, said its CCTV stopped at about 8.00pm and also submitted the video footage of its surveillance camera, as recorded on the ill-fated night.
Tendering the video before the panel, the LCC boss said: “I can confirm that inside here is the video footage that our surveillance camera was able to record for the 20th of October.”
Omomuwa, however, said the CCTV could not capture recordings after 8pm on the day in question, just as he insisted the company did not tamper with the recording.
On why the camera stopped when it did, the LCC chief said: “The major cause is because of network. I can confirm categorically we never, ever, tampered with the surveillance camera. That is why we can get the footage. It remained there until about 8.00pm when it was tampered with and we couldn’t get anything.”
On the company’s request to take over the plaza, the panel, headed by Justice Doris Okuwobi (retd), turned down the prayer.
This followed the request by LCC counsel, Mr. Rotimi Seriki, who asked that the company be allowed to take possession of the facility to evaluate the level of damage before seeking insurance claims.
“My humble request is that if the tribunal doesn’t have further need to visit the plaza, the LCC should be permitted to take back possession of the toll plaza for the purpose of evaluation of the damage and commence the process of carrying out necessary repairs,” Seriki had prayed.
Replying however, Justice Okuwobi ruled that the tollgate would remain closed, saying the panel needed to pay another visit to the facility after watching the video clip submitted by the company.
This, the panel said, would enable it arrive at a definite conclusion on the matter.
Trader’s woes
Also, a trader, Mr. Ndukwe Ekekwe, narrated to the panel how he was made a paraplegic by officers of the disbanded SARS.
The wheelchair- bound Ekekwe, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), told the nine-man panel that he was thrown from a two-storey building at the Alaba International Market by officers of the squad.
Accompanied by his aged mother to the sitting, Ekekwe, who was not represented by a counsel, narrated to the panel in Pidgin English the events that led to his paralysis.
The petitioner said at 2.00pm on Feb. 16, 2018, he was arrested at the Alaba International Market without charge by SARS officers.
He said fellow traders asked the policemen show their identity cards before Ekekwe could be handcuffed.
“They immediately removed their SARS shirts and began to shoot and everyone ran away. I asked them what my crime was and they said the arrest was an order from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
“I was handcuffed in one hand because they noticed I wasn’t a troublemaker. On our way, they stopped at Igando and came down from the car and were talking.
“I used my other hand to reach my phone to try to call my mother, but the Inspector saw me, approached me and asked who gave me the guts to make a phone call and he took the phone, stepped on it and destroyed it.
“He stabbed me on my wrist and back and I was hit on the head with the butt of a gun and beaten. They collected the N58, 000 that was for my shop,” he said.
Ekekwe said he was taken to the SARS office at Ikeja, Lagos, and at midnight he was stripped naked, taken to a torture chamber where he was beaten and tortured.
He said other SARS officers, who were torturing other individuals, also joined their colleagues in torturing him and the men even threatened to shoot him.
“I was left there till evening and I didn’t know my crime and till now I don’t know my crime. They kept saying that intelligence report is on me.
“At night of that day (Feb. 17, 2018), I was taken to my three shops where I sell phone accessories.
“The SARS officers using hammers broke into my shop and took my goods in their vehicles and sold some of it to people in the market.
“They took away my goods worth N15million. I began shouting to attract attention and the commander told them to take me to the top of the two-storey plaza and I was thrown down from the building.
“The SARS officer that threw me from that building is Hamza Haruna. They took me back to their office in my injured state,” he said.
Ekekwe said when his condition became dire; he was taken from the SARS office to the Police Hospital in Ikeja, and eventually referred to two other hospitals for treatment of his injury.
The trader said he used to be the breadwinner of his family, but suffered a spinal injury from being thrown from the storey building, which led to his paralysis.
The petitioner said the police did not pay for his medical expenses and that he had to sell his house and landed property to offset the expenses.
The Chairman of the panel, Justice Okuwobi adjourned proceedings to Nov. 13 for the testimony of Ekekwe’s mother.
NAN
