Security forces have shot dead four Nigerians and four others were killed by a speeding vehicle during street protests over fuel prices in the oil-producing country.
A police spokesman said the four were shot in a suburb of the inland capital Abuja, where police fired teargas and battled protesters yesterday. He said the firefight suggested they may have been criminals taking advantage of the protests.
The other four died in Lagos when a speeding vehicle crashed into a group of demonstrators. Police said it was an accident.
Yesterday, riot police fired shots into the air and used teargas to quell violence as a general strike paralysed the world's eighth biggest oil-exporting nation, shutting ports, banks, shops and petrol stations. Unionists torched barricades.
Nigerian trade unionists vowed to push the strike into a second day today, triggering mounting concern over the West African state's oil exports.
The strike was sparked by President Olusegun Obasanjo's decision to raise fuel prices by over 50 per cent on June 20th. Mr Obasanjo, re-elected for a second term in disputed elections in April, also faces heated political debate over an increase he says is essential to the economy.