ABU Refutes Viral Claims Of Secret Nuclear Weapons Project

The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, has dismissed as false and misleading a viral social media video alleging that the institution was involved in developing a secret nuclear weapons programme for Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Director of Public Affairs at the university, Malam Auwalu Umar, described the AI-generated video as a deliberate attempt to misinform the public and distort Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy efforts.

“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,” Umar said. “This information is baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated.”

According to him, the claims are historically inaccurate, as most of the ABU scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad during the 1980s and could not have participated in uranium enrichment or any weapons-related activity.

“ABU has no connection whatsoever with the AQ Khan network and has never received any equipment for the construction of a centrifuge or a nuclear device,” he added.

Umar clarified that by 1987, the only nuclear-related facility at the university was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational the following year, in 1988.

He further explained that Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor (NIRR-1) was established almost a decade later, in 1996, under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme, and officially commissioned in 2004.

“Nigeria’s nuclear activities have always been open and pursued strictly for peaceful purposes, in line with the country’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibit the development of nuclear weapons,” Umar reaffirmed.

The university spokesman emphasised that the Centre for Energy Research and Training, established in 1976, operates in collaboration with the IAEA and international partners including the United States, Russia, and China, adding that the centre “has never engaged in any secret weapons programme.”

“ABU has always pursued peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for national development,” Umar stated.

He recalled that the university’s founder, Sir Ahmadu Bello, showed early interest in peaceful atomic research following his 1960 visit to the Museum of Atomic Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States, two years before ABU was established.

Reiterating the institution’s guiding principles, Umar said, “The management restates its commitment to advancing science and technology for the benefit of humanity and to upholding Nigeria’s international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”