Abel Baba only Nigerian referee listed for AFCON 2017

The Confederation of African Football has shortlisted 17 referees and 21 assistant referees for the 31st Total Africa Cup of Nations Gabon 2017.

Of the 38 officials, Abel Baba is the only Nigerian on the list of the officials.

Baba is shortlisted as one of the assistant referees to be on the sidelines for the Gabon 2017 AFCON tournament.

The host nation is drawn in Group A with Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Guinea Bissau.

The other three groups comprise Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal and Zimbabwe in Group B.

Group C with Cote D’Ivoire, RD Congo, Morocco and Togo while Group D has Ghana, Mali, Egypt and Uganda.

The tournament will be held from January 14, 2017 to February 5, 2017 in the Gabonese cities of Libreville, Franceville, Port Gentil and Oyem.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will be missing their second consecutive AFCON, having failed to qualify to defend the 2013 AFCON they won in South Africa in Equatorial Guinea in 2015 as well as Gabon 2017 event.

List of referees

Ghead Grisha, Egypt
Youssef Essrayri, Tunisia
Janny Sikazwe of Zambia
Bakary Papa Gassama of Gambia
Mehdi Abid Charef of‎ Algeria
Daniel Frazer Bennett of South Africa
Eric Arnaud‎ Otogo Castane of Gabon
Alioum Alioum of. Cameroon
Joshua Bondo of Botswana
Bamlak Tessema Weyesa of Ethiopia
Mahamadou Keita of Mali
Bernard Camille of Seychelles
Hamada el Moussa Nampiandraza of Madagascar
Redouane Jiyed of ‎Morocco
Lemghaifry Bouchaab of Mauritania
Malang Diedhiou of Senegal
Denis Dembele of Cote D’Ivoire
Assistant Referees
Tahssen Abo El Sadat Bedyer of Egypt
Anouar Hmila of‎ Tunisia
Aboubacar Doumbouya of Guinea
Abel Baba of Nigeria
Abdelhak Etchiali of Algeria
Zakhele Thusi Siwela of South Africa
Theophile Vinga of Gabon
Evarist Menkouande o‎f Cameroon
Elvis Guy Noupue Nguegoue of Cameroon
Marius. Donatien Tan of CoteD’Ivoire
Waleed Ahmed Ali of Sudan
Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim of Sudan
ArsenioChadreque Marengula of Mozambique
Jerson Emiliano‎ Dos Santos of Angola
Redouane Achik of Morocco
Jean Claude Birumushahu of Burundi
Yahaya Mahamadou of Niger
Marwa Aden Range of Kenya
Djiril Camara of Senegal
El Hadji Malick Samba of Senegal
Olivier Safari Kabene of DR Congo