The Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry investigation the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers on October 20, 2020 at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos has rejected the request of the operators of the Lekki tollgate, Lekki Concession Company (LCC), to “take back possession” of the tollgate.
The Chairman of the panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, maintained that the tollgate would remain closed. She made this position in a short ruling on Tuesday.
The judge said there might be need for the panel to visit the tollgate again after seeing the video footage from the surveillance camera submitted by the LCC on Tuesday.
Counsel to the LCC, Rotimi Seriki, had begged the panel to allow the firm “take possession” of the tollgate plaza to evaluate the damaged level of the scene for the purpose of insurance claims.
Seriki pleading is following an earlier request at the proceeding by the LCC Managing Director, Abayomi Omomura, who said on Last Friday, when he led the panel on a visit to the toll plaza, that the place had been inaccessible to the management of LCC.
Omomuwa said from what he saw on during the visit on Last Friday, the level of damage is so high and that it would take the company not less than six months to fix the tollgate plaza.
While answering questions on how soon the tollgate would resume operation, Omomuwa said, “Any projection made here will just be guesswork. When we went there that day, I saw the level of damage. The whole tolling system is completely destroyed. It will not take anything less than six months to fix.
“I want to plead that they let us have access so that we can process insurance.”
While reinforcing Omomuwa’s request, the LCC lawyer, Seriki, said, “My humble request is that if the tribunal doesn’t have further need to visit the plaza, the LCC should be permitted to take back possession of the toll plaza for the purpose of evaluation of the damage and commence the process of carrying out necessary repairs.”
However, Justice Okuwobi in a ruling said the panel agreed that it was necessary for the LCC to go and evaluate the level of damage, “but we will not grant that access yet. The need may arise for the panel to revisit.”
The chairman the encouraged the LCC to make the application after the panel must have seen the video footage submitted by the firm.
