Men in plain cloth who claimed to be police officers were waiting at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport to arrest the LMC Chairman.
The men said they were under instructions to arrest Shehu Dikko, who is also the Nigeria Football Federation’s second vice president on the orders of the Abuja police commissioner.
Dikko was part of the delegation that led the Eagles to Ndola where the Super Eagles defeated the Chipolopolo of Zambia 2 – 1.
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However NFF executive committee members, the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung and media members resisted the attempt to arrest the LMC boss, and demanded to see a warrant and identification.
The men in mufti, who said they were officers from the Jos Police Command, did not present anything to show they were actually who they claimed to be.
When reporters started taking photographs, one of the men drew a gun and pointed it at journalist Kelvin Omuojine before discharging the weapon in the air.
The gunshot dispersed the crowd that came to welcome the Super Eagles from their victorious outing at Ndola and forced officials to scramble Super Eagles players into their team bus, which was hurriedly driven away from the airport.
The abduction attempt comes after a contempt of court order issued by Justice I Kundah of the Jos High Court sentenced Dikko and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of LMC, Salihu Abubakar, to two weeks in prison for contempt, which was irked that the league body disobeyed its order to reinstate Giwa FC to the Nigeria Professional Football League and reschedule all its matches.
The LMC has since then successfully appealed and received a stay from the higher Court of Appeal.
Speaking on the incident, Dikko said he was surprised by the action of the operatives, who he claimed defied an existing order by the Court of Appeal for the warrant of arrest to be suspended until the determination of the case at the appellate court.
In addition, Nigeria’s inspector general of police had issued a directive to stay all actions pending final determination of the suit, for which a hearing is expected on Tuesday.
Dikko told ESPN FC that the commissioner has already assigned police to protect him.
“I have eight policemen attached to my house and others attached to my personal office, all by the Abuja commissioner of police under the instruction of the inspector general of police,” he said.
“So I wonder if the [commissioner] wants to see me as these men claimed, [why] he couldn’t just ask the police he deployed to protect me to invite me to see him?”