Video footage from the CCTV camera presented by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) has shown that several trucks, which allegedly belonged to the Nigerian Army, were seen being deployed to the Lekki Tollgate area of Lagos State on October 20—the day of the shooting incident.
According to Channels Television, this was discovered during the resumed sitting on Saturday, November 21, 2020, of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up to probe incidents of police brutality and extra-judicial killings, and the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters by the Nigerian army at the Lekki Tollgate.
READ: #EndSARS: There’s a possibility that hoodlums shot Lekki protesters – Malami
The video footage showed that the location was calm until 6.43 pm when some people could be seen running towards the tollgate from the Oriental Hotel as a number of trucks were seen arriving at the Lekki toll gate with flashing headlights.
It also showed that 10 minutes after the arrival of the military vehicles, the lights at the tollgate went off, with one of the vehicles driving through the tollgate to the other side where the crowd of protesters was gathered.
READ: Lekki Shooting: LCC submits CCTV footage, says camera stopped working at 8 pm
However, after about three hours of watching the footage, the counsel to the #EndSARS protesters, Adeshina Ogunlana, who was earlier given access to the video complained that the footage was not the one that should have been played.
In his claims, he pointed out that a particular recording was omitted, explaining that he was given tapes tagged t1 and t1 full.
READ: Lagos State launches N5 billion post-COVID-19 economic recovery support for MSMEs
At the resumed sitting, Justice Doris Okuwobi (rtd), who is the Chairman of the judicial panel, said she was calling up the Lekki Toll company first so that the footage of the happenings around the Lekki Toll Gate would be watched by all parties, including the Nigerian Army.
It can be recalled that the setting up of the Judicial Panel of inquiry was a fallout of the protests by Nigerians against police brutality and extra-judicial killings, with the victims expected to get redress.
READ: Lekki Tollgate Shooting: We were not told about the change of curfew time – Nigerian Army
The panel was also mandated to unravel the circumstances surrounding the Lekki shooting incident and the reported deaths.
The Nigerian army, who initially denied its role in the incident, describing such reports as fake news, later came out to admit that officers had been deployed to the area on the invitation of the Lagos state government after a curfew had been imposed, due to the outbreak of violence and the destruction of public and private assets.
