The Management of Lekki Concession Company (LCC), yesterday told Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for Restitution for Victims of SARS and related abuses and other matters that their closed-circuit Television camera at the Lekki Toll Gate did not capture all that transpired at the scene on October 20.
The company’s Managing Director, Abayomi Omamuwasan, said this on Tuesday, after tendering the footage of scene by scene account of what happened on the day #EndSARS protesters were shot at the Lekki Toll Gate plaza.
He said that the surveillance camera stopped capturing the event of October 20, at 8 pm when it developed network issues.
While further testifying before the panel, he disclosed that the CCTV stopped recording around 8 pm and did not capture all that transpired at the scene.
He also said the company had three surveillance cameras located at Sandfill, Ikoyi Bridge, and one at Chevron.
“The surveillance camera didn’t capture the whole event of that day. It stopped recording around 8 pm,” Omamuwasan told the panel.
He added that the fire outbreak at the Ikoyi Bridge affected the CCTV cameras and it stopped recording.
Contrary to the claims that the company removed the camera from the scene of the incident in order to cover up, the LCC boss said that the cameras that were removed on the day of the incident were not surveillance cameras. Speaking on the type of cameras being used by the company for its operation, the LCC boss, said, they used two types of camera for their activities, and the first type, “is for identifying and capturing object like vehicles number plate while second is surveillance camera mounted on a mast to capture the whole area in order to know what is happening in three different locations where they have cameras”.
He added that the audio of their surveillance cameras was not activated because the cameras were primarily used for vehicular traffic purposes and not security.
Explaining the reason for the power outage, he stated that the company complied with the curfew and asked staff to leave in adherence with the directive of the state government.
He added that the company withdrew its staff from the toll gate following the takeover of the toll gate by the protesters.
“We are using three sources of power supply for our operation, which are Independent Power Provider (IPP). The power is supplied from an IPP somewhere in Lekki Phase 1 and If there’s no power, we have a generator. We also have a UPS, because “the toll gate can never be off.”The lighting of up of the area is usually done around 7:30 pm, but on that particular day, our people left the location at 4 pm. Everyone was asked to go. So, therefore, there shouldn’t have been light at all between 4 pm and 7:30”, he said
On the ownership of the company, he said the company is 100 percent owned by the Lagos State Government.
On the operation of the billboard at Lekki Toll Gate, he said LCC was not in charge of the billboard because the facility was leased to different advertising agencies to operate, and among the agencies were LOATSAD, Prodigy, I Contact, and EMotion.
When he was asked if he has confirmed any verifiable casualty from the events of October 20, he said no. Further hearing has been fixed for November 6.
