Nigeria’s Super Falcons were held hostage by the men of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) on their arrival from Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday.
The ugly incident happened barely hours after the team qualified Nigeria for her 12th Africa Women Nations Cup (AWCON) appearance with a 1-0 victory ( 3-0) on aggregate defeat of the Lady Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire in Abidjan on Wednesday.
The players and officials arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport by 12:30 am Nigerian time, but were held hostage by the NCDC officials who demanded for fresh COVID- 19 tests.
A source disclosed that were held for four hours by the officials despite showing their COVID-19 vaccination cards.
In a viral video, some of the tired players were seen crying, while some were lying on the airport floor.
The Super Falcons coach Randy Waldrum could not hide his anger either as he described the whole situation as frustrating and complete ‘nonsense’.
He said: “This is very frustrating, we had a two-hour flight from Ivory Coast and we have been in this room for almost two and a half hours.
“It is very frustrating to come back home and the players have to go through this. This is nonsense, all these COVID rules… we have already taken the test multiple times to be able to play the game, so I don’t really understand it, but it is very frustrating.”
This is a new low for the ladies, being detained unlawfully in their own country, but it isn’t the first time the Super Falcons have faced embarrassment while on international duty. In 2019, the Super Falcons were verbally attacked by a Nigerian man while they made use of a public train in Vienna, Austria.