Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has summoned the Chargé d’Affaires of Libya to address the poor treatment of the Super Eagles during their recent visit to the country.
The Nigerian team faced a frustrating 12-hour ordeal at Al Abraq International Airport after arriving on Sunday afternoon, leading to widespread condemnation of the incident. Players expressed their fatigue and frustration, while the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) announced that they would be withdrawing from the qualifying series.
In a statement, the NFF noted, “Fatigued players and officials have remained nonplussed as the host Libyan Football Federation failed to send any reception team or even vehicles to take the delegation members from the airport to their hotel, said to be 3 hours away in Benghazi.”
Reacting to the situation, Tuggar called Libya’s actions “unfortunate.” Speaking at the Office of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, on Monday, he said, “It’s the most unfortunate situation because the Super Eagles flew to Libya to play a match. The Libyan team was here; they were supposed to land in Uyo but instead landed in Port Harcourt, where they were not supposed to land.
“Now our team has gone to Libya, and somehow the plane gets diverted to a different airport. Unfortunately, at that airport, there is no aviation fuel. We decided they need to refuel and get out, but there was no food. When they landed in Kano, they were fortunate to receive some cartons of water; otherwise, even water would have been a problem.
“We have established contact with them and sent representatives from the mission. They are in touch with the delegation. I have also been communicating directly with the chairman, and since last night, we’ve been in contact with the Chargé d’Affaires because Libya doesn’t have an Ambassador here. We are heading back to the Ministry now, where we have summoned the Libyan Chargé d’Affaires. This issue has to be resolved as quickly as possible. We’re on top of the situation.”
