The Nigeria's Pillar of Sports, Chief Donatus Agu-Ejidike (JP) has condemned the actions of the Libyan government for hostage-taking the Nigerian senior national football team, the Super Eagles, for about 16 hours in Al-Braq airstrip about 230 kilometers away from Benghazi airport, where the Nigerian team was originally billed to land.
This was made known during media briefing on Tuesday, in Abuja with newsmen, after the team safely returned to the country. The Super Eagles left the shore of the country for Libya on Sunday morning in a bid to honour their second leg of the AFCON 2025 Qualifiers group D fixture against the Mediterranean Knights of Libya, after recording a 1-0 win in Uyo. But moments before the chartered plane (ValueJet) conveying the team was due to land, the flight crew got a flight-diverting signal from the Libyan authority to proceed to Al Braq Air strip, used majorly for hajj operations without basic facilities for landing. This was against a complaint by the captain of the flight that the "Iron Bird" was running low on fuel. But with the expertise and dexterity of the pilot, the plane landed without issues.
But whoever thought, that would be the end of the
ordeal for the team, had another think coming, as no Nigerian on board the
flight was allowed to step out of the air strip that was about 200 kilometers
away from where the team would trade tackles with their Libyan counterparts.
Yet no official of the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) was on ground to
receive, or in touch with, the Nigerian contingent. No arrangement by the LFF
on how they would be evacuated from what later turned out to be "a detention",
either. In other words, the LFF, in contravention of the Confederation of
African Football (CAF) rules and regulations, regarding hosting of
international competitions, made no effort to either receive, or evacuate their guests from the
"detention facility".
When the President of the Nigerian Football Federation
(NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau who was
among the traveling contingent, tried to make alternative arrangements for
feeding and rehydration, and to get the team out of the facility, was when it
became clearer to the Nigerian contingent, what was going on. The Libyan
security operatives manning the "airport", in a stern note of warning
made clear that there has been an instruction from the highest authority in the
country that no Nigerian on board should be allowed to step out of the
detention. They were therefore, locked up and forced to sleep on board the
aircraft.
The same goes for every hotel around the airstrip, who
declined booking to let any Nigerian in, on instructions from "the
above". This discovery was made by the Tunisian pilot who was the only
person allowed the freedom to get out of the airstrip on account of him being a
non-Nigerian. It was at that point that what was going on became clear - a kind
of mind game (albeit, taken too far) to weaken the Super Eagles, ahead of a
match.
After about 14 hours without food, water and internet
facility, the NFF and the team, led by the captain of the team, William
Troost-Ekong concluded that the team would not be able to turn up for the
match, as they no longer felt safe to travel on road covering over 200
kilometres, with barely 24 hours to the match.
There were insinuations that the Libyan debacle was
their response to what they purported to be maltreatment when they had a flight
diversion from Uyo to Port Harcourt, following their failure to fully disclose
their itinerary to the NFF with whom they had an agreement to arrive on
Wednesday, but came in a day earlier. They only informed their Nigerian hosts,
about a couple of hours to landing, when it was already too late for them to
have a seamless arrival and reception. This, according to the NFF was self-inflicted,
as there was little the federation could have done, having not been carried
along in their (the Libyans') itineraries.
Therefore, Chief Agu-Ejidike, in a very strong term,
condemned the inhumane treatment to which the Nigerian team was subjected, and
demands a strong response from the Nigerian government saying that Nigerian is
too big a country to be so treated, by any nation, anywhere in the wold.
The Nnewi-born business mogul who is equally the
patron of the Nigerian Football Supporters' Club commends the co-ordinated
responses of the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr. Yusuf Tuggar)
Nigerian in the Diaspora Commission boss (Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa), the Minister
of Sports Development (Senator John Owan Enoh), and other critical football
stakeholders in country, to the issue. The former President of the Karate
Federation of Nigeria (KFN) noted that such a strong response is needed, to
send the right signal to any nation who has the intention of maltreating any
Nigerian contingent in the future to have a rethink. Nigeria is not a country
anyone can mess with without consequences, he added.
The Anambra-born Sports philanthropist said he was
elated by the press release from the Presidency saying that, it was a kind of
tonic needed to foster among our patriotic Eagles, what he calls the
"Spirit Nigeriana" that never allows Nigerians wherever they find
themselves to give up, regardless of how dire the situation might be. He
salutes the indomitable spirit of the team led by their captain and the
technical crew who refused to be broken in the face of such a massive
adversity.
Ejidike equally calls on the African
Football-governing body, CAF, to carry out a thorough investigation on the
matter, and ensure that appropriate punishments are dished out to any of the
parties found culpable in the whole brouhaha - something, he said, does not
project African Football in a good light in the eyes of the international
community, especially the comity of footballing nations
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