ABU denies alleged secret nuclear weapon project

The Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, has denied the allegation that it was involved in developing a nuclear weapon for Nigeria.

The university refuted the claims in a statement by the Director, Public Affairs Directorate, Malam Auwalu Umar, on Saturday in Zaria.

Umar described the video where the allegation was made as AI-generated, adding that it was aimed at misinforming the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.

According to him, the video falsely claimed that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna and that ABU researchers obtained centrifugal equipment from the AQ Khan network in Pakistan.

The institution’s mouthpiece further explained that the information was baseless, unfounded and unsubstantiated.

He added that most of the ABU scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training, CERT, were still undergoing training abroad as at 1980s and could not have participated in uranium enrichment.

“Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor (NIRR-1) was established much later in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and commissioned in 2004,” he said.