Nigerian Super Eagle Players and officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are set to return to Nigeria from Libya after the team’s chattered aircraft was diverted while the players were subsequently held hostage at Al Abraq International Airport in the North African country.
The action of the Libyan authorities frustrated the Super Eagles to the point that they had to abandon their planned game haven been starved of food and water for more than 15 hours and their plane grounded.
The Libyan authorities denied fuel to ValueJet, the Nigerian registered aircraft that flew the players to Al Abraq International Airport.
The Nigerian players were to fly direct to Benghazi where the qualifiers match was to be played, but the Libyan aviation authorities diverted the aircraft to Al Abraq International Airport a city of over 265 kilometres from Benghazi where they were supposed to play. They Libyans wanted the Nigerians to travel for over 12 hours by road even when terrorism and banditry is rampant in the entire Libyan territories.