Africa-Press – Nigeria. Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted reports that the Nigerian Acting Head of Mission in Portugal was summoned by the Portuguese government over the movement of a Nigerian Air Force plane scheduled for maintenance in the European country.
The spokesperson for the ministry, Kimiebi Ebienfa, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, describing the claims circulating online as entirely false.
“The alleged summoning of the Nigerian Ambassador in Lisbon by Portuguese authorities over a Nigerian Air Force aircraft heading to Portugal for maintenance is fake news,” he said.
The clarification is coming after heightened attention on the C-130 aircraft that made an unplanned landing in Burkina Faso earlier in the week.
The aircraft, en route to Portugal for scheduled maintenance, landed in Bobo-Dioulasso after the crew detected a technical issue shortly after departing from Lagos on December 8, 2025.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso’s state-run Agence d’Information du Burkina reported that the military aircraft, carrying 11 Nigerian soldiers, was forced to land for allegedly violating the country’s airspace.
In a statement from the Confederation of Sahel States, investigators had highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device.
It added that the regional bloc condemns with the utmost firmness this violation of its airspace and the sovereignty of its member states.
The Nigerian Air Force has maintained that the aircraft diverted strictly in line with international aviation protocols.
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