Following the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) ruling on a complaint by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) regarding the treatment of the Super Eagles in Libya, Nigerians in the country have reported a surge in arrests and fines.
The Nigerian national team had been detained for over 20 hours at Al-Abraq Airport in eastern Libya upon arriving for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Libya.
Initially scheduled to land in Benghazi and travel by road to Benina, their flight was redirected by Libyan authorities to a more distant airport shortly before landing. This forced the NFF to withdraw the team from the match and lodge an official complaint with CAF.
On October 26, CAF’s disciplinary committee, led by Chairman Ousmane Kane, ruled in favor of the Super Eagles, awarding them three points and three goals and imposing a $50,000 fine on the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) for violating several regulations. LFF President Nasser Al-Suwai’I, who condemned the ruling as “unjust,” announced plans to appeal the decision, potentially escalating it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Following the ruling, some Libyan media outlets and blogs voiced anger over the decision, calling for government action against undocumented Nigerian workers. A popular Libyan blog claimed that the fine would be collected from Nigerian nationals, while other sources highlighted calls for taxes and fines to be imposed on Nigerians without legal documentation.
Adenaike Emmanuel, a Nigerian residing in Tripoli, reported that arrests began on Sunday following CAF’s statement, confirming that authorities had started detaining Nigerians regardless of their legal status.
Peter Omoregbie, the President of the Nigerian community in Libya, also confirmed in a video that arrests were occurring in areas like Tedora, noting that people were being detained without regard for valid passports or residency permits, an unusual practice compared to other countries.
“Yesterday, the verdict was issued that Libya has to pay a fine of $50,000 to CAF due to the way they treated the Nigerian football team. Now, on social media, Libyan journalists and numerous bloggers are saying that Nigeria will be made to pay the $50,000 fine by arresting all Nigerians in Libya. But in other countries, nothing like that happens.
As the community leader, I received some videos showing that the arrests started last night in the Tedora area. They said the Libyan police have started arresting Nigerians, whether they have passports or not. Some of us are already afraid, calling everywhere to ask what to do. Sometimes, as community leaders, we are helpless. Even the Nigerian Embassy’s hands are sometimes tied. But international bodies need to intervene in this situation.”
Two days after Omoregbie’s report, another Nigerian in the country, Omo Oba Legba, said the arrests had intensified.
In a Facebook video posted on Wednesday, he said, “My Arab master, who is a policeman, just called me now and told me not to go out to buy anything because they have started arresting Nigerians in Libya. I asked him, ‘What about those with Libyan passports?’ But he said they aren’t considering passports and that anyone who is Nigerian will be arrested. That’s why I decided to alert our people so they know how far this issue has gone.
The Super Eagles had what they needed to and returned. They got their money, whether they won or not. But see the problem they’ve caused for us. If Nigeria was good, we wouldn’t have come to Libya to suffer. The Nigerian team only faced a day of hardship—what about other Nigerians here who face the same treatment every day? My Arab told me that until the CAF fine is overturned, they won’t stop arresting Nigerians. Please, we appeal to the Nigerian government to come to our aid.”
Similarly, Libya INF.TV posted a video on Thursday where a Nigerian pleaded with the Libyan police to stop the indiscriminate arrests.
He said, “Football has nothing to do with us. If you want to catch them, catch them when they come here. Leave us out of this. And to the Nigerian team, I don’t know what you’re thinking, coming here to play football with the Libyan people. You don’t have sense. Please, Libyan police, please.”
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