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The Management of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed as false and malicious a viral AI-generated video alleging that the institution is developing nuclear weapons for Nigeria. In a statement by the university’s Director of Public Affairs, Auwalu Umar, the management described the video, which has been circulating on social media, as the handiwork of “unscrupulous persons” bent on misleading the public and tarnishing the image of the university. The video had claimed that Nigerian scientists at ABU secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in the 1980s using sophisticated centrifuges obtained from Pakistan’s AQ Khan network, and that they were close to producing a nuclear device by 1987. But the university said the claims were “baseless fabrications,” pointing out that most of the scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT), ABU, were still undergoing training abroad in the 1980s and only returned to the country in the early 1990s. “How could it have been possible for trainee scientists to enrich uranium?” the statement queried. It clarified that ABU and Nigeria have never had any connection with the AQ Khan network or any foreign source of nuclear weapons technology, adding that the only operational nuclear facility at the time was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator commissioned in 1988. According to the university, the country’s first major nuclear project, the Nigeria Research Reactor 1 (NIRR-1), was only initiated in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical cooperation programme and commissioned in 2004 under a tripartite partnership involving China, Nigeria, and the IAEA. ABU stressed all its nuclear activities have been transparent and conducted in line with international safety and non-proliferation standards. It explained that the NIRR-1 reactor, initially powered by highly enriched uranium, was converted to low enriched uranium in 2018 as part of global efforts to reduce nuclear threats. Read Also: ABU denies allegations of hidden Nuclear Weapon project The university reaffirmed that Nigeria, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1968 and the Pelindaba Treaty since 2009, is legally bound not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons or enrichment plants. “ABU and Nigeria have always pursued peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for national development,” the statement noted, recalling that the university’s founder visited the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States in 1960, even before ABU was established, to promote peaceful use of atomic energy for humanity. The management urged the public to disregard the video and warned against the spread of false information capable of undermining national institutions and Nigeria’s reputation before international partners.
