NIGERIA: Nigeria's top union official said yesterday police shot dead at least 10 protesters during violence in Lagos as a general strike over fuel prices entered its second week, but police denied the killings.
Mobs also burned cars and looted shops and homes in the southeastern city of Uyo as violence flared in the world's eighth largest oil exporter, just days before a planned visit by President Bush.
"It has been confirmed that police have killed over 10 people in Lagos," strike leader Mr Adams Oshiomhole told a news conference in Abuja. "This is despicable and unacceptable."
But Lagos police spokesman Mr Emmanuel Ighodalo said: "The police did not kill anybody at all."
Mr Oshiomhole said President Olusegun Obasanjo's government had offered a new compromise price for gasoline, but it did not meet the demand of his umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). The congress was expected to decide whether to reject or accept the offer, late yesterday evening.
As Mr Bush winds up his five-nation trip to Africa in Nigeria on Friday night and Saturday, he is likely to focus on Nigeria's status as a regional power and major supplier of oil to the United States. The strike has so far not threatened the visit.
Yesterday protesters blocked major roads and torched piles of tyres in the impoverished western part of Lagos, a city of 13 million people.
In Oshodi, a mainly industrial district, a number of road fires burned and hundreds of frightened people were stranded at bus stops. Youths chanted slogans criticising the president.
Residents said there were also violent disturbances in Uyo in the oil-producing southeast.
Many Nigerians feared the strike would compound political tensions over opposition charges that Mr Obasanjo's re-election in April was massively rigged.
As the disturbances flared, the President took the witness stand in the Federal Appeals court in Abuja to answer questions in an electoral petition filed by one of his poll challengers, former rebel leader Mr Emeka Ojukwu.