Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has summoned the Charge d’ Affaires of Libya to a meeting over the poor treatment meted out to the Super Eagles team in the country.
Recalls that the frustrating 12-hour ordeal at Al Abraq International Airport in Libya, where the Nigerian team was left stranded since their arrival on Sunday afternoon, condemnation has trailed the incident.
While the players complained of fatigue and frustration, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), said its team is backing out of the match.
“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,” NFF said in a statement.
But reacting to the development, Tuggar described the action of Libya as unfortunate.
Tuggar, who was spotted at the Office of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima on Monday, 14 October, 2024, said, “It’s the most unfortunate situation because the Super Eagles flew to Libya to play a match. As you know, the Libyan team was here, they were supposed to land in Uyo instead, they went and 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. And unfortunately, at that airport, there is no aviation fuel, because what we have decided is they need to refuel and get out, we will not be able to allow them to continue, no food. You know, it’s a good thing when they landed in Kano they actually even got some water, some cartons of water otherwise even water would have been a problem but suffice it to say that we have established contact with them. We’ve sent people from the mission to go there to represent the mission. They are in touch with the delegation.
”I am also communicating directly with the chairman, and since last night, we’ve been on the phone with the chargé d’affaires because Libya doesn’t have an Ambassador here, so we’re in touch with the chargé d’affaires, and I am 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. So we’re on top of the situation”.
