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.
Recall that 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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