Nigerian rioters kill three police officers

    IOL // March 03 2005 at 06:32PM

Lagos - Nigeria deployed troops to the central town of Makurdi on Thursday after rioters killed three police officers and smashed their vehicles in protest against the police shooting of a bus driver, residents said.

Witnesses said the riots began on Wednesday night, when the driver was shot dead at a police checkpoint after he refused to pay a bribe, and continued early on Thursday.

Protesters burned tyres in streets around the town, located on the banks of the River Benue about 200km east of the Nigerian capital Abuja, and attacked officers and their vehicles.

"I saw the bodies of three policemen lying along a road in the Idye area of the town," one resident said by phone from Makurdi, capital of Benue state, asking not to be named.

Nigerian police routinely demand 20 naira (about R4) from commercial bus drivers at checkpoints all over the country to enhance their meagre salaries, and often become violent if they do not receive it.

A police spokesperson confirmed that there had been rioting and said an officer had been arrested and would soon be charged.

"We are still trying to calm down the situation," the spokesperson said by phone from Makurdi.

Tensions between residents and police in Makurdi were already high after a policeman killed a 19-year-old girl last week in controversial circumstances.

Extra-judicial killings are common in Africa's most populous nation, where the ill-trained and poorly paid police is better known for corruption than crime fighting.

The authorities have dismissed at least 100 police officers in the last year for extorting money from bus drivers and for killing civilians.