MORE THAN 100,000 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN DISPLACED BY THE LATEST ESCALATION IN EASTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, UNICEF SAID ON SUNDAY, WARNING THE NUMBERS ARE EXPECTED TO RISE AS VIOLENCE SPREADS.(PHOTO).
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly refuted online reports claiming that the Acting Head of Mission in Lisbon was summoned by Portuguese authorities over a Nigerian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft en route to Portugal for scheduled maintenance.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Friday, ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa described the claims as “entirely false” and “fake news.”
“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,” Ebienfa stated.
The clarification follows intense social media speculation surrounding the same aircraft, which made an emergency landing in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, earlier this week after departing Lagos on December 8, 2025. The crew diverted the flight after detecting a technical fault shortly after takeoff.
Burkina Faso’s state-owned Agence d’Information du Burkina reported that the military plane, carrying 11 Nigerian personnel, had violated the country’s airspace. In a subsequent statement, the Confederation of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel) condemned what it called an unauthorised overflight, saying investigators found no prior authorisation for the aircraft to enter Burkinabè territory and describing the incident as a violation of the sovereignty of its member states.
The Nigerian Air Force has insisted that the diversion was carried out strictly in accordance with international aviation protocols and safety regulations.
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