The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied that the Nigerian Acting Head of Mission in Portugal (name withheld) was summoned by the Portuguese government over the movement of a Nigerian Air Force aircraft scheduled for maintenance in the European country.
The ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa told journalist in Abuja on Friday that the claims circulating online to that effect were entirely false.
He said “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 was in response to the heightened attention on the C-130 aircraft that made an unplanned landing in Burkina Faso earlier in the week.
The aircraft heading to Portugal for scheduled maintenance, stopped in Bobo-Dioulasso after the crew detected a technical issue shortly after departing Lagos on December 8, 2025.
Burkina Faso’s state-run Agence d’Information du Burkina reported that the military aircraft, with 11 Nigerian soldiers, was ordred to land for allegedly violating its airspace.
A statement from the Confederation of Sahel States said investigators had “highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device,” adding 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 insisted that the plane was diverted strictly in accordance with international aviation protocols.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts are intensifying to secure the release of the soldiers and the aircraft, now in their fifth day of detention.
