Nigeria:Labour Unions Calls off Street Protests as Fuel Prices Said to Drop

ABUJA---Nigeria’s main labour unions have decided to call off street protests over security concerns, though strike due to soaring fuel prices will continue, after President Jonathan Goodluck announced immediate drop in price of the commodity.

Head of Nigeria Labour Congress Abdulwahed Omar said President Jonathan raised security concerns during Sunday’s meeting with labour leaders aimed at ending the week-long nationwide strike that has cost the government billions of dollars in lost revenue.

"We came to a conclusion that we will stay at home, that is stay off the streets, in order to make sure that we don't in the first instance endanger innocent lives because of the security situation in the country," Omar told country’s Channels television.

Omar said the strike would continue having only suspended street protests after Jonathan spoke of “serious security reports indicating that people outside organised labour may try to hijack the street protests.

In his televised national address, Mr. Jonathan said the government had approved reduction of fuel price by around 30 per cent in recognition of the hardships being suffered by people, .following consultations with state governors and the National Assembly.

The president’s position has apparently been seen as not enough for unions to call off the strike in which the labour leaders are demanding a return to the initial fuel prices before the scrap so as further negotiations could be held.

The strike was put on hold for the weekend, but labour leaders said it will resume on Monday if a deal is not reached.

Removal of a fuel subsidy by the government on January 1 led fuel prices to shoot up from 65 Naira ($0.40) to 140 naira. The national strike called on January 9 by country’s two main labour unions saw tens of thousands take to the street in protest of the government’s action to take away the only benefit they get from it.

The government has said the move will help save about $8 billion that would be used on infrastructure and other social services. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with 140 million people, most who live below poverty limits.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer with over 80 per cent of its revenue coming from fuel.

 

 Tripoli, Libya

Militia Clashes Leaves Two Dead and Scores Injured

Weekend clashes between rival armed groups in northwest Libya has left at least two people dead and over 40 people injured.

Fighters from two rival groups traded heavy gun and mortar fires around the town of Gharyan, 80km south of the capital Tripoli. Fighting broke out on Friday and continued throughout the weekend, when the Gharyan militia had gone to arrest people suspected of having ties with former Muammar Gaddafi regime in Assabia, 16km southwest of Gharyan.

Ismail Ayeb chief of the Gharyan forces say the shoot out began when the Assabia fighters whom he said were yet to be properly searched and disarmed resisted to hand over the suspects in question.

"The weapons weren't handed to the defence ministry or the government, nor the wanted people were turned in," said Ayeb.

Ayeb said the fighting was not between the two al-Asabia and Gharyan tribes but about the continued presence of pro-Gaddafi supporters in al-Asabia, calling on the interim government to end the crisis.

"Now it is the responsibility of the National Transitional Council and the defence ministry.It is important to put an end to all of these problems by detaining loyalists to the former regime and clean the area," he said.

Several efforts to end the fighting have failed as revolutionary fighters from Gharyan were seen repositioning themselves, loading their tanks pointing westwards to Assabia.

Libyan Defence Minister Osama al-Juweili visited the town On Saturday with efforts to broker a ceasefire between the two sides but did not hold. On Sunday Tribal leaders arrived in Gharyan in attempt to mediate the dispute and negotiate a prisoner exchange as situation still remains tense.

Fighting still continues three months after former leader Col Gaddafi was captured and killed by revolutionary fighters in his home town of Sirte, ending the 8 month-long revolution that ended his four decades of rule. Militia groups have been clashing over territories and other minor disputes, often accusing each other of still being loyal to the slain leader.