The Lekki Concession Company (LCC), operators of the Lekki toll gate has said its camera did not record the Lekki shooting.
LCC Managing Director, Abayomi Omamuwasan said this when he appeared at the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Tuesday. LCC also tendered the CCTV footage into evidence.
The LCC was led in testimony by a member of the Lagos state government legal team. A hard drive was admitted in evidence as containing the footage from the toll gate. The LCC also tendered press releases in which they denied the company was bribing in police to disrupt the protests.
At the hearing, The LCC MD claimed that the cameras removed were plate number recognition cameras. LCC, however, admitted to proactively removing the automatic plate number recognition cameras and other equipment “early in the day”.
The MD also said they did not tamper with the surveillance camera until about 8pm. He further stated as follows:
“The network was interfered with, which stopped the recording”
The power is supplied from an IPP somewhere in Lekki Phase 1. If there’s no power, we have generator. We also have a UPS, because “the toll gate can never be off”.
When curfew was declared, we obtained permission, and asked all staff to go, including those in charge of the generator.
None of LCC staff physically witnessed the #LekkiMassacre. We can only rely on the footage. This is because “they didn’t want to be provoke protesters”.