CAF gives Libya, Nigeria October 20 to provide evidence on botched AFCON qualifier
• Jalla Wants AU To Call Libya To Order
• Civil Society Group Urges Tinubu To Approach ICC In Hague
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has asked the Libyan Football Federation, LFF, and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to submit documents relating to the cancellation of the 2025 AFCON qualifying Group D fixture.
The Super Eagles pulled out of the game which was scheduled for October 15, after their plane was diverted to Labraq Airport and the players held hostage for 18 hours without Internet, food and water.
According to Libya Al-Ahrar Channel, the Secretary-General and person in charge of running the body, Nasser Al-Suwaie, confirmed in a statement that CAF has given the Libyan and Nigerian associations until October 20 to submit the documents.
Al-Suwaie confirmed that LFF has assigned a lawyer to provide evidence, adding that there may be collusion from some parties within the CAF, but the position of the Libyan Federation is strong. He insisted that the Libyan Federation had nothing to do with changing the course of the plane’s landing to Al-Abraq Airport.
According to Al-Suwaie, it was a decision taken by the Libyan state, and that the sovereignty of the Libyan state must be respected by everyone. Meanwhile, former Nigeria international, Harrison Jalla, wants the African Union to call Libya to order following the bad treatment given to the Super Eagles in the delisted second leg of their AFCON qualifiers against the Mediterranean Knights.
“It is very important at this stage to wait for CAF’s decision to make further comment on this situation, but on the diplomatic front, the African Union must call Libya to order,” Jalla told The Guardian.
“There are documented evidence to show Libya’s hostility to nationals of other African countries in that country.
“Unfortunately, the AU has not done enough to check the tales of woe, torture, rape and extortion immigrants suffer in the hands of the Libyan authorities. This unfortunate experience of the Super Eagles has reignited the hostile nature of the Libyan authorities to fellow Africans. The civil war in Libya cannot be an excuse. So many African countries including Nigeria have experience civil wars in the past.
“Back to the main issue, let us wait for CAF’s decision because the Libyan National team also have complaints of maltreatment against Nigeria when they came for the first leg in Uyo. It is entirely CAF’s prerogative on the next line of action. So let us wait and see how it pans out,” Jalla stated.
Meanwhile, a civil society group, Congress for Good Governance for National Unity has charged the Federal Government to institute a case of attempted genocide against the Libyan Government at the International Criminal Court at the Hague saying that the lives of Super Eagles players and the supportive continents were put in danger of death by Libyan authorities for forcefully diverting the landing of their aircraft to another airport about 150 kilometers away from the earlier one, and which the aircraft’s fuel had been earmarked for the shorter route.
The group in a statement by the National President Abiodun Fanoro further urged President Bola Tinubu to lodge the same complaint at the African High Commission for Human rights, stressing that the deadly action of the Libyan Government “has exceeded the boundary of football and has dangerously crossed into criminal act of attempt on lives of the Nigerian sports ambassadors as attested to by the courageous Tunisian pilot, who revealed that the landing diversion was in the realm of compromising safety of those on board.”
The group said while CAF would be handling the football aspect of the incident, both ICC and the African High Commission for Human Right should at the same time be dealing with “culpable attempted genocide, crime of hostage, deprivation of essential and basic life sustaining rights to food, water and communication”
According to the group “the resolution of the football dimension of the unwarranted and provocative ill treatment of the Nigerian contingent by CAF should not be accepted by Nigeria as the resolution of the whole matter, because the aspect that borders on life is not the same as not holding the game.
“The expected sanction botching of the match by Libyan authorities could not be a reparation for the lives the authorities had wanted to waste if the aircraft had crashed due to fuel shortage, making it very obvious that there more than two dimensions to the matter.”
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