/ 12 February 1999

TRUCKERS WINS IN LAGOS

LAGOS police have arrested 13 people and banned northern cattle herders from using a 50-year-old market after a clash with oil tanker drivers this week left several people dead. The ban came after oil tanker drivers threatened strike action. The drivers regularly hold Lagos to ransom by strikes, using the chronic fuel shortage — in the oil-rich country — to bring the city to a standstill. On Tuesday night up to eight people were killed in a fight between cattle herders and tanker drivers after a cattle truck crashed into a tanker at the market.