LAGOS, July 7: Rioting erupted in Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos on Monday and unions accused the police of shooting dead unarmed protesters in a crackdown on an eight-day-old strike.

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government made an improved offer to lower petrol prices in a bid to bring an end to the nationwide protest, but on the streets the strikers’ mood was darkening.

Protest barricades were thrown up across Lagos, home to more than 13 million largely impoverished people, as police fired tear gas and warning bursts from their assault rifles.

Embarrassingly for Obasanjo, the unrest comes just five days before he is due to welcome US President George Bush to the capital Abuja.

Strike leader Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), accused police of trying to break the strike by killing protesters.

“The information we have as of this morning is that police have killed over 10 people in Lagos,” he told reporters.

“Police are starting to shoot and use tear gas in an aggressive manner. If they continue we will declare war on the police, and let them kill all Nigerians at the same time,” he declared

“I don’t know why the police authorities have the illusion that they can use the power of firearms to force Nigerians into submission,” he said.

While it was impossible to confirm that 10 people had died, Lagos was gripped by widespread unrest and newsmen saw agitated police firing warning shots and even levelling their guns at bystanders to clear the roads.

In the flashpoint Mile 2 area of the city, a 20-strong vigilante gang wielding machetes and randomly firing shotguns drove off strikers who had blocked the Alaba expressway, pursuing them into a nearby housing state.

The private network Channels Television broadcast footage of four bodies of men its reporter said had been killed in two incidents in the city.

And a senior NLC official told how police had fired on a march in the inner-city district of Yaba, fatally wounding a young student, Tunde Andoye, of the Yaba College of Technology.

“We were hold a peaceful march ... then the police came shooting sporadically into the air. One bullet came through on a young man, it pierced him in the throat, he died instantly,” Emmanuel Ugboaja told AFP.

“When you shoot into a crowded street, you know you are not going to hit a bird,” he said, when asked if police had targeted the young man.

The NLC called the strike after Obasanjo abolished subsidies on fuel, causing prices to climb by more than 50 percent. The pump price of petrol shot up from 26 naira to 40, sparking public anger.

Oshiomhole said that the government had now offered to cut the price to 34 naira (26 cents/22 euro cents) and that NLC leadership will meet later Monday on to decide their response.

Strike leaders blamed Monday’s explosion of violence on a new police get tough policy, while the police said that “hoodlums” were taking advantage of the strike to go on the rampage.

Lagos police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo claimed that the situation was under control and that police had not shot anyone.

“As far as I know, and as far as the high command knows, we have not killed anyone. We have been very restrained,” he said.

“That said, we’ve been absorbing attacks from the hoodlums. They have been dispersed peacefully.”—AFP