Two killed as fuel subsidy protests continue in Nigeria

Two persons were allegedly shot dead by the police yesterday at Ipata Market road and Murtala Muhammad road by the Post Office area roundabout in the heart of the city when hundreds staged protest rallies that led to the vandalization of cars, filling stations and a bank in the city, the Daily Trust reports today January 4, 2012.

According to the publication, protesters went violent after they saw one of them shot dead. They began vandalising property, setting up bonfires on the roadways and damaging cars parked at the MRS and Total filling stations.

Hundreds of protesters were reportedly also arrested, though many were later released, as they took to the streets in many major cities around the country yesterday, shutting petrol stations, forming human barriers and setting up bonfires in anger at the abrupt doubling of fuel prices.

Removal of fuel subsidy announced by regulator Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) on New Year Day officially shot up price of petrol to N144 per litre from N65, the publication disclosed.

Prices according to the publication went wild as a litre sold for as high as N200 in some places, rocketing transport fares and ratcheting up anger around the country.

Spokesman for the police in the state ASP Dabo Ezekiel is quoted by the publication as having said that, the man killed at the post office roundabout was stabbed with a sharp object by some protesters for showing support to the scrapping of fuel subsidy and could not confirm the other killing.

“The allegation that police stray bullet hit and killed the protester is not true. The deceased is a member of another splinter group of people who are also protesting in support of the fuel subsidy removal,” ASP Ezekiel is cited as saying.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Abdulwaheed Omar has confirmed the killing of one protester by the police, according to the Daily Trust.

By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor