Violence erupts in Nigeria over petrol prices

Protesters furious over spiralling petrol prices started fires on a motorway and at least one person was killed in the unrest after Nigeria’s government scrapped a subsidy that had kept fuel costs down for more than 20 years.

One union leader described the government’s hugely unpopular move as “immoral and politically suicidal” and urged Nigerians to resist “with everything they have”. But yesterday’s protest showed that, once unleashed, the pent-up anger of the masses could be hard to curtail.