ABU refutes claims of involvement in secret nuclear weapons project

Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed as false a viral social media video alleging that the institution was developing a nuclear weapon for Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Saturday in Zaria, the university’s Director of Public Affairs, Malam Auwalu Umar, described the video as misleading and AI-generated, saying it was intended to misinform the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.

He said the video falsely alleged that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna and that ABU researchers had obtained centrifuge equipment from Pakistan’s AQ Khan network.

“The claims are baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated,” Umar stated.

He explained that most scientists at ABU’s Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad during the 1980s and could not have been involved in uranium enrichment.

According to him, ABU has never had any connection with the AQ Khan network nor received any centrifuge equipment or nuclear weapons technology.

Umar clarified that the only nuclear facility at ABU by 1987 was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational in 1988, while Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor (NIRR-1) was later established in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and commissioned in 2004.

He stressed that Nigeria’s nuclear programme has always been transparent and exclusively peaceful, in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, both of which prohibit the development of nuclear weapons.

“The Centre for Energy Research and Training, established in 1976, operates in collaboration with the IAEA and partners from the U.S., Russia, and China,” he noted, adding that the university has never engaged in any secret weapons programme.

Umar reaffirmed ABU’s commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear science for national development, recalling that the institution’s founder, Sir Ahmadu Bello, had shown early interest in peaceful atomic research after visiting the Museum of Atomic Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. in 1960.

“ABU remains committed to advancing science and technology for the benefit of humanity and to upholding Nigeria’s international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” he said.