10th September, 2021
Sentinel Forensics Ltd, contracted by the Lagos State Judicial Panel to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the October 20 Lekki shooting and help the panel in its investigation has submitted its report to the panel.
The head of the team, Joseph Kayode, appeared before the panel on Friday to give the report of its findings which has lasted for more than 10 months.
While tendering his report to the panel, Mr. Kayode said his firm could not determine the authenticity of footages of the incident presented to the panel by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC).
The Managing Director of LCC, Abayomi Omomuwa, submitted the video footage recorded by the Company’s surveillance camera on the 20th October 20, 2020.
The forensic expert also got other evidence in the Lekki shooting including bullet shells recovered by members of the judicial panel, when they visited the scene on October 30, last year.
Kayode, said “the authenticity of the video evidence tendered by the LCC could not be determined because the forensic company did not have access to the servers from which the source recording was made.
The forensic expert also stated that they found out that there was no hash value from the source device to be used for comparison after the forensic imaging and hash value were created from the digital evidence tendered by the LCC.
He added that the team was unable to determine the method of extraction used for the video and CCTV system information from the recording device.
However, he suggested the footage submitted may be real stating that “an extensive visual examination of the video evidence did not show any signs of being doctored as to time frame and pixel.
Shot fired by Nigerian Army
While speaking, Kayode confirmed that the Cartridge Casing obtained from the Lekki Toll Gate are of the same caliber as the Nigerian Army’s Live Ammunition.
“The live ammunition presented by the Nigerian Army is of the same caliber as the cartridge casing submitted by the judicial panel,” he said.
He, however, said the blanks submitted by the panel, didn’t match the records from the Nigerian Army’s inventory.
“While the blank ammunition submitted by the Nigerian Army is not of the same caliber as the cartridge casings submitted by the Judicial Panel.
“The blank ammunition submitted by the Nigerian Army is not designed to be fired by rifles chambered to 7.62 x 39mm.”
Counsels to some #EndSars protesters, NBA, Lagos State at the hearing made series of applications upon the submission of the forensic report.
Chairperson of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi (retd) adjourned the matter till September 11 to enable the lawyers to obtain the report, study it and cross-examine the witness.