Unions accept fuel price deal, end strike

Nigerian trade unions on Tuesday ended an eight-day general strike to protest fuel price increases and accepted a compromise price deal offered by the government. Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who met all night to consider the government offer, settled for 34 naira (US $0.26) for a litre of petrol or a 31 percent hike instead of the 54 percent increase announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government on 20 June. "Given the suffering and deprivation Nigerians have suffered within the last few days, the NLC had a compelling duty to avail the people some relief by suspending the strike," Adams Oshiomhole, president of the umbrella union, said in a statement. At least 14 people were killed in violence during the eight days of the strike, with 10 said by union leaders to have been shot dead by the police in the country’s biggest city of Lagos during riots on the last day of the strike. Police denied killing protesters and blamed any deaths on "hoodlums" who burned tyres on major streets and shattered the windscreens of cars and commuter buses taking people to work. Work and businesses did not resume immediately across the country on Tuesday, with the announcement suspending the strike filtering through after the morning rush hours. Most offices, banks and schools remained closed. The government insists Nigeria should no longer have to spend US $2 billion a year on subsidising fuel that was already extremely cheap by international standards. Labour leaders argue the steep price increases for petrol, diesel and kerosene would only aggravate poverty among Nigeria's 120 million people, 70 percent of whom live on less than one dollar a day.