Usama OLAGUNJUThe Senate, at its plenary on Tuesday strongly condemned Libya’s hostile treatment of the Super Eagles, the country’s national football team who were in their country for the second leg, Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against their team.
This follows to a motion on the ill-treatment of the Super Eagles in Libya brought under Personal Explanation by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Sulaiman Kawu (Kano South).
Senator Kawu said the action of the Libyan authorities and the football federation did not only endangered the lives of the players, but other members of the delegation.
He described the act of the Libyans was deliberately orchestrated to frustrate and dampened the morale of the Nigerian team, who are on national assignment.
“The action of the Libyan authorities and football federation did not only endangered the lives of the players, but other members of the delegation, which include the deputy governor of Edo State, Nigeria Football Federation officials, and couple of parliamentarians and staff of Nigerian parliament”.
“The embassy of Nigeria in Tripoli made an arrangement with the authorities in Benghazi to welcome the Nigerian delegation before the arrival, but their application was out rightly rejected, as the Libyan authorities concluded to frustrate our team ahead of the scheduled match”, Senator Kawu said.
The Kano South senator urged the Senate to consider his proposal and condemn the ill-treatment of the team by the Libyan authorities for the unwarranted hostilities and unfair treatments on the Nigerian football team.
He also urged the federal government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring this ugly development to the attention of the Libyan government and the need to exercise restrain as this act has negative diplomatic consequences.
In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary said what happened to the Super Eagles in Libya was not in tandem with the spirit of sports.
He said the “essence of sports is to promote unity and competition and enhance brotherhood among the countries on the continent”.
Senator Barau who described the way the Super Eagles players were treated as “terrible”, called on the Libyan government to “apologize for what they have done to the Nigerian team”.
The Super Eagles’ ordeal began when their chartered ValueJet aircraft was diverted from Benghazi to the smaller Al Abraq International Airport, typically used for hajj operations.
The team was left stranded at the Airport for over 12 hours.
