There is palpable fear in Libya as CAF Disciplinary Board prepare to release its findings on the botched Libya – Nigeria Africa Cup qualification match.
The whole episode arose from the sudden diversion of the aircraft carrying the Nigerian team.
It was thereafter that the hostage episode unfolded as the team was kept in custody for 20 hours without access to either water or food and had to sleep on chairs and bare floor.
The video evidence of the pilot, Captain, Abdellatif Merchergui, a Tunisian has put the Libyan authorities in a bad position.
According to the latest reports from Libya Akhbar, the delay of the Nigerian team at the airport was blamed on “problems with the passport system.”
It is reported that CAF has finished “hearing the testimony of a Tunisian pilot, who was the captain of the Nigerian national team plane on its flight…”
Quoting from the video, Libya Akhbar reports verbatim, the pilot’s comments: “He said in a video recording: “The flight plan was to land at Benghazi as our destination and we got approval from the Libyan authorities to land there but unfortunately when we were close we were told to divert to another airport about 300 kilometres away from our destination”
“It is not a good thing because in aviation we have a flight plan and we calculate how much fuel will take us through so we have to avoid such problems because they may hinder our safety.”
The Tunisian pilot concluded his speech by saying: “In aviation, we cannot hide anything. I asked the civil aviation in Libya at least eight times, but they repeated the same thing, saying that we cannot land there.
“Thank God we arrived and landed safely. We have all the evidence, and it is well documented.”
The Libyan Football Association officials submitted to the Disciplinary Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) all documents related to air navigation and the technical reasons that led to changing the flight path from Labraq Airport instead of Benina Airport in the city of Benghazi.
