Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has debunked claims that there was an order for the removal of the closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) at the Lekki toll Plaza where the Nigerian military shot unarmed #EndSARS protesters.
Sanwo-Olu was a guest on ARISE News and said “the verifiable truth is that the security cameras cannot be touched, are intact and will be available for the panel investigating the shooting.”
“Nobody ordered the removal of the cctv cameras. Management of the toll plaza had said to me that because of the curfew that was announced they took a decision that they will take out installations that are critical to them.
“That camera you saw was not a security camera, it’s not a motion camera it’s a laser camera for vehicles to pick up tags and number plates of cars approaching the toll plaza. It’s an infrared camera and not a security camera.
“Security cameras for the Lekki toll plaza are still available and these are some of the footage that we’ll be using for our investigation. Security cameras are installed on top of the towers and they are there, I have seen them they are live and they are still recording and nobody can touch them.
“The cameras that were pulled off were a decision that the local personnel of the company took in conjunction with the management of the company. The security cameras are still intact and these are things that we can leave open for citizens to come and verify,” the governor said.
The governor said the footage of the surveillance cameras will be made available to a properly constituted investigative panel which will be set up on Monday as evidence so it can be properly investigated.
“We will drop this as evidence so that experts can review and see what kind of cameras are these that were shown in the footage. I think that is the honest and truthful position of that,” he said.
According to the governor, there was no order for the lights at the toll plaza to put off. Again, he said the lights were put off as a result of the curfew that was put in place.
He said, “with regards to the light, I understand there is also a concessionaire that manages the LED board on top. They are the ones that have the concession agreement and have the right.
“I saw a letter like any other person said that the company said they put off their light because of the curfew that the state government had put in place. Those were their points and I have never spoken to the owner of that business not in the last one week, so there’s no communication that will reflect that we influenced that decision. That was a decision a corporate organisation took that because of the curfew they are taking off the LED screen.”
By Abel Ejikeme