Lagos Judicial panel of inquiry rejects LCC’s request to ‘take back possession’ of Lekki tollgate

The Lagos state Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the alleged shootings of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos on October 20, has declined the request by the operators of the tollgate, Lekki Concession Company (LCC), to “take back possession” of the Lekki tollgates.

At the sitting today November 3, counsel to LCC, Rotimi Seriki, urged the panel to allow the firm “take possession” of the tollgate plaza to evaluate the level of damage for the purpose of insurance claims.

His appeal came after the LCC Managing Director, Abayomi Omomuwa, also made the same appeal before the panel. Omomuwa told the panel that from the look of things, the level of damage at the toll plaza was so much that it will require as much as six months to fix all the damages.

“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.” he said

In his submission, counsel to LCC, 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.”

The Chairman of the panel, retired Justice Okuwobi, in a short ruling, said the tollgate plaza would remain closed for now. According to her, the panel might have a need to pay another visit to the tollgate plaza after watching the video footage from a surveillance camera submitted by the LCC at today’s sitting.