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LAGOS, Nigeria -- Soldiers have barricaded key roads in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos as the president offered a concession to halt fuel price protests that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy.

Troops and police also blocked entrances to protest venues in Nigeria's second-largest city of Kano on Monday, including a park near a university and a square in the city center.

Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP - Getty Images

Protesters gather to protest against the scrapping of oil subsidies at Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday.

The deployment of troops is a sensitive issue in a nation with a young democracy and a history of military coups. President Goodluck Jonathan said in his televised speech early Monday that agitators have hijacked the demonstrations.

A machete-wielding dog owner screamed racist abuse at a Nigerian man who complained about being bitten by his Rottweiler - then later told police the animal had nipped the male nurse because it 'didn't like black people'.

Nurse Patrick Ogunobo, 57, was nipped at by the unleashed Rottweiler yards from his Openshaw home.

When he told the dog’s owner, Wolf Carter, that the animal should be on a lead, the thug screamed racist abuse before pulling the machete from his backpack and lunging at him.

Mr Ogunobo bravely stood his ground, grabbing Carter’s wrist and wrestling the blade from him.

Police arrested Carter, who claimed his dog did not like black people because a previous owner, a black man, had mistreated the animal. But Manchester Crown Court heard the 41-year-old loner’s police interview was peppered with racist rants, described as ‘worrying’ and ‘bizarre’ by the judge.

Carter will now spend 18-months behind bars after he was found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon in a trial earlier this year.