Nigeria-Libya soccer imbroglio Tunisian pilot speaks on how he was ordered to divert Super Eagles flight

The end has not been heard on the controversy, trailing the botched AFCON second leg  qualifier between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and the Mediterranean Knights of Libya.

The pilot of the chartered flight that flew the Super Eagles to Libya has now opened up on how the Libyan authorities forced him to divert the aircraft to an a remote airport at Al-Abraq instead of Benghazi, its intended destination.

Libya’s unsportsmanlike act led to the abandonment if the match because apart from diverting the flight, the Nigerian team was left stranded at the airport for 14 gruelling hours without food and water.

The Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, accused the Libyan Football Federation, LFF, of deliberately diverting the flight, the host federation denied any maltreating of the Super Eagles, baking it on logistics.

However, the Tunisian pilot, in a video, described the diversion as both risky and unanticipated, adding that all his appeals to make the Libyan officials see reason failed to convince them otherwise, as they claimed to be acting on orders from the ‘highest authority’.

“In aviation, we have our flight plan, we calculate the fuel to our destination, so we have to avoid this kind of thing because it may make a breach to safety,” the pilot explained.

“When I asked to land in Benghazi according to my flight plan and according to my authorization, they said no, it’s from the highest authority; you have to land in Al-Abraq.

“We cannot hide anything, so I asked them several times, at least eight times, and I warned them, probably I will be in trouble for fuel; they said it’s from the highest authority, you cannot land in Benghazi, you have to divert immediately to Al-Abraq.”