Judicial Panel of Inquiry constituted by the Lagos State Government to probe Lekki tollgate shooting on Friday has paid an unscheduled visit to the Military Hospital and morgue in the Ikoyi area of the state.
The judicial team is investigating the shooting at Lekki tollgate where 15 protesters were reportedly killed. Witnesses of the Lekki shooting accused military officers of taking away some of the bodies.
After an initial resistance by the soldiers for about 30 minutes, the panel members were allowed into the hospital premises.
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 noted;
The facility is relevant to our investigation. We have a pathologist. We are here on the authority of the president, not only the governor. We are following due process, and it is important we visit the mortuary as it will help our findings. If we are not allowed access, we will go back and take other actions.
We won’t force ourselves in. We have confidential information that the military hospital here is relevant in the investigation of the Lekki event. We heard this hospital is controlled by the 65 battalion and under the 81 division. We are also taking steps to reach military authorities.
Adegboruwa expressed;
We are exercising our mandate on behalf of the governor of Lagos State under the tribunals of inquiry law.
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.
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Adegboruwa said though the panel does not have evidence that there are bodies of those killed at the tollgate in the hospital, it was at the facility to investigate the claims.
He stressed;
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.
