Lukman Olabiyi
The Management of the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) on yesterday told the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for Restitution for Victims of SARS and related abuses and Other Matters that the footage of the October 20 shootings of the #EndSARS protesters is available.
Mr Gbolahan Agboluwaje, the Head of the Legal Department of LCC made the revelation after Mr Abayomi Omomuwa, the Managing Director of LCC had been sworn-in to give evidence before the panel.
Agboluwaje said that the LCC received a summons from the panel very late on Wednesday, October 28 to appear before it and was also ordered to present the October 20 footage, an investigation report and any other document.
“We have the footage. We do not have an investigation report because we know that investigations are ongoing and we have not been able to provide any document,” he said.
He, however, noted that the LCC was prepared to air the footage before the panel and that there are hours of recordings on the CCTV footage.
“We had a very short notice and we brought what we were able to lay our hands on,” he said.
Agboluwaje told the panel that due to the short notice of the summoning, the Managing Director (MD) of LCC, Mr Abayomi Omomuwa, would not be able to testify because the company was yet to hire an external counsel to represent the MD.
Mr Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN) announced his appearance as the counsel representing the Lagos State Government.
Responding, the Chairman of the nine-man panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd), granted Agboluwaje’s request for a short adjournment.
Justice Okuwobi noted that the programme of the day for the panel was to visit the locus (scene of the Lekki Shooting) and to have proceedings based on their findings from the visit.
“We were initially to take note of what we see at the locus and today’s proceedings was to be subsequent to what we see there.
“The panel will arise very shortly to visit the locus. The panel noted that it is required of the witness to have a counsel of his choice. We will not take the proceedings of the visit of the locus until then,” she said.
At the scene of the incident, the panel found five bullet shells.
Mr Omomuwa, at the scene informed the panel that a camera on the mast worked until the carnage erupted at the scene on Wednesday.
He said the camera was no longer working at the moment because it stopped working after the carnage.
The panel also made an unscheduled visit to the Military Hospital in the Ikoyi area of the state.
After an initial resistance by the soldiers for about 30 minutes, the panel members were eventually allowed into the premises of the hospital.
Addressing journalists, a member of the panel, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, said the panel has ‘confidential information’ that certain events took place in the hospital on October 20, 2020.
He said, “We are exercising our mandate on behalf of the governor of Lagos State under the tribunal of inquiry laws.
“We have already inspected the Lekki toll gate today and we decided to pay an unscheduled visit to the mortuary of the Military Hospital because we have confidential information concerning certain events that took place in the hospital here.
“We are waiting for them to grant us access to inspect the mortuary because we have reasons to believe that that facility is relevant to our investigation.
“We don’t want to make any conclusions yet until we have access to that mortuary to inspect it.
We have a pathologist with us who is here to help us conduct medical examination of bodies that we may find in the mortuary.”