NIGERIAN STUDENTS PROTEST AGAINST AN OIL PRICE RISE, 2000-06-05 (photo)

Nigerian students protest against the fifty percent fuel pump price increase in Lagos June 5. Riots erupted in southwestern Nigerian cities on Monday over a 50 percent hike in petroleum product prices, witnesses said. Students and workers went on the rampage in the cities of Abeokuta and Ibadan, about 55 km (35 miles) and 110 km (70 miles) north of Lagos, respectively. Earlier, students chanting anti-government slogans had burned tyres and blocked roads leading into the Yaba district of Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, witnesses said. Opposition to the new price, linked to a cut in subsidies, has been growing since state oil firm NNPC announced increases in prices last Thursday. Many Nigerians who see fuel subsidies as one of the few benefits delivered by the government of Africa's biggest oil producer said the price hike had pushed up prices of other goods and services. GE/JDP