Nigerian police fire tear gas as fuel protests heat up

AFP

3 January 2011

Nigerian police fire tear gas as fuel protests heat up

There has been widespread opposition in Nigeria to the ending of fuel subsidies.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigerian police fired tear gas and detained protesters while crowds blocked petrol stations Tuesday amid rising anger over a controversial measure that has led to skyrocketing fuel prices.

Africa's top oil producer ended fuel subsidies Sunday, which caused pump prices to more than double to about 140 naira (0.66 euros, $0.96) per litre in a country where most people live on less than $2 per day.

The step sparked days of protests in Africa's most populous nation.

In the economic capital Lagos, about 200 people, including prominent rights activists and the son of the late legendary musician Fela Kuti, Seun Kuti, began the day protesting before marching along a main highway.

A small crowd on the margins burnt tyres and protesters ransacked at least one petrol station, while police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

One man claimed to have been hit by a live round and showed journalists a wound to his stomach as he ran away.

Other stations shut down as the protesters sought to block fuel sales.

"We will not leave the streets until fuel prices come back to 65 naira," one person who identified himself as Tunde said earlier as he carried a container of fuel to pour over tyres.

Police moved in quickly to prevent a protest in Kano, the largest city in Nigeria's north, detaining nine people preparing for a demonstration at a football pitch they renamed "

Freedom Square

," an organiser said.

"The nine of us, the organisers of the sit-in protest, are now being detained at the police metropolitan division," Audu Bulama said by phone before it was seized by police.

"As we were gathering, 20 armed policemen came in three vans and dispersed the crowds of about 40."

The nine were released a few hours later. Police said they had been brought in for questioning.

Separate protests broke out later, including by a couple of hundred people near the state parliament building in Kano.

In the capital Abuja on Monday police also used tear gas to disperse a protest there. The country's main trade unions have threatened protests for the coming days.

Protest threats in Nigeria have often fizzled out in the past, but the fuel subsidy issue is one of the few that unites much of the vast country, with widespread popular opposition to the move.

Economists and government officials view removing the subsidy as essential to allow for more spending on the country's woefully inadequate infrastructure and to ease pressure on its foreign reserves.

The government says more than $8 billion was spent in 2011 on fuel subsidies.

Nigerians however see the subsidy as their only benefit from the nation's oil wealth, and years of deeply rooted corruption have resulted in profound distrust of government officials.