Following the incident at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, the Terms of Reference of the panel was expanded to cover that incident.
The report by the Lagos State Judicial Panel on #EndSARS says the Lekki Concession Company refused to submit footage from the Closed Circuit Television cameras (CCTV) stationed at the tollgate which could have helped in further investigation of the incident.
The panel was inaugurated on October 19, 2020, to look into complaints of citizens against human rights abuses by the police.
Following the incident at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, the Terms of Reference of the panel was expanded to cover that incident.
The panel sat for well over one year and took testimonies of petitioners, witnesses, experts and lawyers.
The panel led by a retired judge, Doris Okuwobi, submitted the reports on Monday at the Governor’s Office in Alausa, Ikeja.
In its report obtained by SaharaReporters on Monday, the panel noted that the staff members of the LCC removed cameras stationed at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 2020, and these were not tendered before the panel.
Also, the panel stated that the report of the forensic expert contradicted the testimony of the Managing Director of the LCC, Abayomi Omomuwasan who claimed his men were not on ground at the time of the incident.
SaharaReporters recalled that on November 3, 2020, the Lekki Concession Company produced footages from Closed-Circuit Television of the Lekki Toll Gate shooting alongside other documents.
Omamuwasan, who appeared alongside a counsel for the company, Rotimi Seriki, submitted a hard drive to the panel, saying it contained what happened at the toll gate.
Seriki, who tendered the footage to the panel, urged it to use its discretion on when to make the content public.
The LCC at the time claimed the cameras stopped working and couldn't capture the shootings at the tollgate.
A section of the report titled, ‘The Involvement Of LCC On The Lekki Toll Gate Incident Of 20th October 2020’ reads, “The LCC owns and runs the Lekki Toll Gate which became the epicentre of the Lekki Protest. The LCC was obviously
in charge of the operation and custody of the CCTV Cameras and indeed all cameras at the Lekki Toll Gate.
“There is no doubt whatsoever that these cameras would provide real-time evidence as to what happened if provided and if they remained untouched.
“From the totality of the evidence before it, the panel finds that some sets of cameras stationed at the Lekki Toll Gate were removed by members of Staff of LCC on October 2020, and they were not tendered before the panel.
“These cameras would have assisted the panel in its investigation into the incident that occurred on the night of the 20th October 2020.
“There is no doubt that this picture would have been clearer and the panel and forensic experts would have been assisted in their fact-finding mission and analysis if these vital pieces of evidence had been tendered.
“The panel finds from the report of the forensic expert that the movement of the camera following a pre-set format most of the time and switching from this mode at other times, strongly suggests that it was operated on both automated and manual modes during the time under review contrary to the evidence of the MD of the LCC that his men were not on the ground.
“Also, the ‘hue change’ from colour to night mode at 18:53:07 hours alludes to conscious manipulation by the operators of the LCC Camera as it appears to have occurred at a very crucial moment where the quality of footage of the incident in the colour mode might have provided better insights to the events occurring at that specific point.
“Furthermore, the Sentinel team led evidence that it requested for access to the main server and it was directed by the LCC to the TP1, at the Ikoyi Toll Gate.
“The team was told that the main server from which the CCTV footage was derived had been burnt. The panel, therefore, finds this contradictory to the early evidence of the MD of the LCC that the cameras at each Toll Gate communicate directly to a central database Server located at Chevron, which he claimed was intact after the incident of 20th October 2020.
“The panel finds that the LCC CCTV footage of the Lekki Toll Gate on the 20th of October 2020 ends at 8:08 pm when the Nigerian Army were still at the Lekki Toll Gate.