OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 3.45pm.
AT least six people have been killed and 16 arrested as a strike over the fuel price in Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos entered its second day, paralysing businesses and international air traffic.
Business was brought to a standstill on Friday in Lagos, Abuja and other major cities, as shops and markets as well as banks, post offices, hospitals and other public services all rallied around the strike call by the country’s main workers union, the Nigerian Labour Congress.
Protestors erected barricades and started bonfires in many areas, and despite prompt police intervention, roads were deserted and hundreds of commuters were stranded at bus stops across the country.
“Our offices in Lagos are closed and we are not likely to operate on Saturday the Lagos-Nairobi flight. On Tuesday we did not fly into Lagos as scheduled because of the crisis,” a worker in the office of the Cameroon national airline said.
Residents living near the two Lagos airports said that they have not seen any flights taking off from either airport since the strike, called in response to a rise of around 50% in Nigerian fuel prices, began on Thursday.
In Lagos, a car driver was killed after he careered into a ditch to avoid a crowd of angry protestors, bringing the death toll from violence this week over a hike in fuel prices to at least four.
The latest casualty occurred on Thursday, after three days of furious protests by students which spread across the country.
Witnesses said at least three students were killed during a riot on Tuesday in Abeokuta, about 100km west of Lagos, after a bus driver refused to let students commandeer his vehicle to transport their colleagues to a demonstration.
Several other people were injured as rioters lashed out with machetes and iron rods until police intervened to restore order. Two thieves were also shot dead by police on Thursday, as looters began to exploit the chaos caused by the strike.
Street urchins barricaded roads in central Lagos on Friday, extorting money from the few motorists who ran into them. A journalist, who ran into one of the roadblocks, had his car radio, dashboard and money forcefully removed by the youths, who appeared to be intoxicated.
Youths smashed the windscreen of another motorist’s car late on Thursday, stealing a large sum of money and other belongings from him, family members said.
NLC President Adams Oshiomhole rejected a government offer in Abuja on Thursday to cut fuel prices by about a sixth, and insisted that the general strike will continue.
On Wednesday, Nigeria’s Senate, its upper house of parliament, called on the government to revoke the price rises “to avoid further hardship on the ordinary citizens of this country,” in a motion that was adopted unanimously. — AFP