Two people killed, trade unionists arrested as strike enters second day

Two people have been shot dead and several trade unionists have been arrested in isolated flare-ups of violence triggered by Nigeria's general strike, police and a human rights activist said on Tuesday. Lagos, the commercial capital of the West African country, remained shut down on Tuesday for the second day running. However, more people appeared in the city's quiet streets as the day went on. Banks, schools, offices and most businesses stayed closed in Nigeria's other main cities, although Abuja, the federal capital, was once more the exception. More workers turned up at offices in Abuja, buses and taxis continued to ply the streets and more filling stations opened selling petrol under police guard. The four-day stoppage began on Monday. It was called by Nigeria's largest trade union movement to protest at a recent 25 percent increase in fuel prices. Police said a 12-year-old boy was shot dead in the northern city of Kaduna when police clashed with protesters on Monday. Aziboala Roberts, a human rights activist in the oil city of Port Harcourt in southeastern Nigeria, told IRIN that another man was killed there in a similar incident on Tuesday. Police in Awka, the capital of Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria, said they arrested nine trade union leaders on Monday as they were attempting to stop taxi and minibus operators who had ignored the strike call. “The nine suspects were charged today for disturbing public order,” police spokesman Kolapo Sofoluwe told IRIN. Adams Oshimole, President of the 29-union Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), threatened to prolong the strike if there were further instances of police killing or arresting people taking part in the stoppage. “If we discover the police is still arresting and killing, we will elongate the strike,” he told a news conference in the capital Abuja. The trade unions and their allies, which include civic groups and opposition parties, originally said that after the current four-day stoppage they would give the government another two weeks to reverse the price hikes. But they threatened to call an indefinite general strike if prices remained unchanged after this period. The current strike is the sixth to be called by the NLC since President Olusegun Obasanjo began to phase out fuel subsidies three years ago as part of his policy of deregulating Nigeria’s downstream oil sector. The government insists the reforms are necessary to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies of over US$2 billion a year and corruption that has left four state-owned refineries moribund, leaving Africa’s leading oil producer dependent on fuel imports. Last month's fuel price increases took the price of a litre of petrol up to 53 naira (38 US cents) a litre. That is still cheap by international standards, especially with world oil prices rocketing to record highs of more than US$50 per barrel. However, the unions argue that the resulting rise in living costs imposes further punishment on Nigeria's impoverished population. More than 70 percent of the country's 126 million people live on less than one US dollar a day.