Police Break Up Fuel Protest In North Nigeria

Published January 5, 2012 9:00AM (EST)

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Police in northern Nigeria have used tear gas to break up an overnight protest over spiraling gasoline prices.

The cost of fuel more than doubled in Africa's most populous nation after the government announced Sunday that they would end a cherished subsidy.

Demonstrations have erupted across Nigeria this week, including in Lagos where protesters lit bonfires on an expressway.

Early Thursday, police moved in on those demonstrating at a traffic roundabout in the city of Kano around 2 a.m. Protesters say some were injured and others arrested as police fired tear gas.

Local police spokesman Magaji Musa Majiya told The Associated Press that officers moved in only after "drugs addicts and hoodlums took advantage" of the protest.


By Salon Staff

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