Lekki Concession Company (LCC), Managing Director, Mr Abayomi Omomuwa, yesterday testified before the Lagos State judicial panel on restitution for victims of SARS-related abuses and other matters, that the surveillance camera stopped recording at about 8:00p.m. in the night of October 20, when soldiers fired bullets at #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate.
Led in evidence by his lawyer, Mr Rotimi Seriki, Omomuwa further said that the cameras stopped working due to network issues.
He, however, said the company did not tamper with the camera. Omomuwa, who honoured invitation of the panel in relation to the Lekki shootings, was led-in-evidence by his counsel, Mr Rotimi Seriki, and the lawyer representing Lagos State government, Mr Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN).
He said LCC is the operator of Lekki tollgate, which is owned by the Lagos State Government. He explained that the company has three surveillance cameras located at Sandfill, Ikoyi Bridge and Chevron and that the camera network communicated with each other, with the command and control centre at Chevron.
He added that the fire outbreak at the Ikoyi Bridge affected the CCTV cameras and it stopped recording.
In his explanation on the reason for the power outage, he said: “The company complied with the curfew and asked staff to leave in compliance with the directive of the state government. The company withdrew its staff from the tollgate, following the takeover of the area by #EndSARS protesters.
He continued: “We never tampered with the surveillance camera, that is why we have footage until 8:00p.m. when it stopped recording. It was around 8:00p.m. that we did not get any CCTV recording. It stopped recording because of network issues with the system.”
He further stated that the camera has capacity for detection and identification of object because it can also zoom. “We did not activate the audio of the camera. The main purpose is for traffic control.”
Chairman of the panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, received the copy of the footage.
