Lekki Concession Company has denied claims it removed the CCTVs at the Lekki-Victoria Island tollgate just before the shooting of peaceful #EndSARS protesters on Tuesday, October 20.
On Tuesday, hours before the shooting, many Nigerians on social media expressed concern about the safety of many protesters at the tollgate, after a photo went viral with protesters claiming the men were at the tollgate removing the CCTVs on government’s instruction.
The press release was shared on Twitter by the deputy governor of Lagos state, Obafemi Hamzat, who said he was trying to fully understand what transpired before releasing a statement.
In the past 2 days, my goal has been to fully understand the sad events that transpired before publicly issuing any statements. We have read so much about removed CCTV cameras and other things that have skewed the minds of the public and with a general lack of trust, I understand pic.twitter.com/mqWEhQg6iw
— Obafemi Hamzat (@drobafemihamzat) October 22, 2020
Read the statement from the company below;
1. Lekki Concession Company Limited (LCC), STRONGLY CONDEMNS the shooting of peaceful protesters at the Admiralty Circle Toll Plaza yesterday, 20 October, 2020. LCC would NEVER support or condone such unscrupulous act meted out on unarmed protesters. Since the commencement of the protests, LCC has allowed free access to the protesters without any disruption to their activities.
2. LCC has cooperated with the protesters from onset, identifying with the cause and need to end the police brutality. We provided lights, toilets among other items to the youths as a show of solidarity.
3. As the protests progressed, our tolling equipment were being looted. We recovered items daily with the help of some of the protesters. Such items included air conditioners, violation alarm bells, monitors, keyboards etc.
It added;
4. On the 20th of October, we received feedback that some of the tolling equipment were being pulled off, hence we went into the lanes to recover more items including analogue BOSCH telling devices used to monitor transactions carried out in the toll lanes.
5. The perimeter closed circuit television system (CCTV) are Mobotix Digital cameras. They were not removed and are still installed in the lanes even now. There was no instruction from ANYONE to remove the perimeter CCTV cameras. Removing them will require the use of machinery to reach the heights that they have been installed and are still installed.
6. LCC receives power from the IPP grid, the power albeit stable is taken off from time to time. At such times, LCC relies on the backup generators for power supply, however, following the declaration of the curfew by the tate governor, LCC withdrew ALL her staff from the office locations. This is the reason why the lights could not be restored when the mains from IPP went off temporarily. This is verifiable.
7. We sincerely regret this unfortunate incident and condemn the shooting of unarmed protesters Toll Plaza and other locations in the State.
This comes few hours after Loatsad media released a statement explaining why the billboard at Lekki tollgate was also turned off that same night.
The billboard, since protest commenced at the tollgate, has helped to illuminate the environment. However, it was off during the shooting incident, leaving the protesters in total darkness.
This has led to speculations about what truly transpired during the shooting and how many casualties were recorded.
