LAGOS (AP)--A nationwide strike to protest fuel price hikes shut down most of Nigeria's commercial capital Monday, with militants smashing car windows to keep people home and streets nearly void of traffic except soldiers and anti-riot police in armored vehicles.

Officials of oil multinationals pumping most of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels daily said the strike had so far not affected oil flow, which was reportedly continuing normally.

"The strike is on. Nigerians are united over this," said Owei Lakemfa, a spokesman for Nigeria Labor Congress, the nation's main labor union.

Weekend talks to avert the strike ended in failure with NLC chief Adams Oshiomhole, who was briefly detained by authorities on Saturday, accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of shunning dialogue to resolve union grievances.

Union leaders are demanding the government reverse price hikes after fuel prices rose by nearly 20% last month.

The fuel market was deregulated last year, prompting a series of price rises that were met with widespread protests.

In Lagos, most businesses, banks and schools were closed. Government troops and anti-riot police were out on the streets in force, patrolling in armored vehicles through the city's deserted central business district.

Militants, too, were out in large numbers to ensure other residents stayed home.

On one major highway, an Associated Press reporter saw more than 500 protesters supporting the strike stop several passing vehicles, ordering them back and smashing their windshields. The group was later dispersed by police reinforcements who fired tear gas canisters and shot in the air.

In the capital, Abuja, where there was only partial compliance with the strike call, more than a dozen armed policemen also blockaded the headquarters of the Nigeria Labor Congress.

"They're preventing me from leaving," Oshiomhole told reporters.

Also in Abuja, unionists in three minivans who had been driving around the city to rally support for the strike were stopped by police armed with assault rifles. They were not arrested.

Leaders of the country's two powerful oil workers' unions were also participating in the strike.

"It's going as planned," said Peter Akpatason, president of the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria. "Office workers are expected to stay at home and we're not allowing crew changes at production and export facilities."

Crews currently at work on the production and export facilities, however, were still on the job, Akpatason said.

The white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria said it was only striking for one day - Monday - in sympathy with the workers' grievances.

"We believe dialogue alone will resolve the problem," said Babatunde Oguns, deputy president of the white-collar union.

Officials of several oil multinationals pumping most of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels in daily exports said the strike hasn't impacted on the flow of oil so far.

"People working in the offices are mostly not there because of restrictions on movements, but oil production and exports are going ahead," said a spokesman in Lagos for Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC), which accounts for roughly half of Nigerian exports.

Nigeria is the world's seventh-biggest oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

After the strike's first four days, there will be a break of two weeks to give the government time to reverse the price increases, failing which there will be an indefinite general strike, union officials say.

A coalition of Nigerian civic groups and opposition parties, including the main opposition All Nigerian People's Party, have also expressed support for this week's strike.

A general strike in Nigeria last year shut down businesses in the largest city, Lagos, and several other cities for eight days, prompting a violent government crackdown in which police killed at least 11 protesters. Crude oil exports, however, were unaffected.

  Dow Jones Newswires
  10-11-04 0827ET

   
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