The pilot in charge of the Super Eagles aircraft has come out to narrate how the Nigerian team were denied access to land at the Benghazi Benina airport in Libya, Soccernet.ng reports.
The three-time AFCON winners were set for a trip to Benghazi from Nigeria, but they were redirected when they tried to land at the airport. They ended up at the Al-Abraq International airport, 300km away from their intended destination.
Speaking after Nigeria landed, the Tunisian aviation officer revealed he reached out to the Benghazi airport nothing less than eight times, but was repeatedly turned down.
https://twitter.com/NigeriaStories/status/1846098087426531534?t=srYpoEYv5Ja9BSb_2-Cimw&s=19
“The flight plan was to land in Benghazi as our destination and we got the approval from the Libyan authorities to land there, but unfortunately when we were at a close distance, we were told to divert to another airport which is about 300km away from our destination.
It was far and towards the east and not a part of our coordinates. It is something that's not good because in aviation, we have our flight plan and calculate the amount of fuel that'll take us through so we have to avoid issues like this because it could hamper with our safety.
When we were about to land in Benghazi, they told us no, citing it was an order from the highest authority
In aviation, we cannot hide anything. I asked them at least eight times but they repeated the same thing, saying we cannot land there. Thank God we made it safely and we landed safely.We have all the evidences and they're well documented,” the Tunisian aeronaut explained.
After over thirteen hours in Libya, the Super Eagles were cleared to return home and the pilot flew them in yesterday evening after they chose to boycott their AFCON 2025 game against the home side.
Honestly, these Libyans are very irresponsible people. No wonder they are still fighting each other years after killing Ghaddafi. We have heard many stories of how they enslave black Africans living in the country, and now the madness turn to our footballers. These nomad Arabs if they don’t want to be seen as Africans, let FIFA, CAF and AU exclude them from anything African.