ABU Refutes Claim Of Secret Nuclear Weapon Project

The management of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed allegations linking the institution to a supposed secret nuclear weapons development programme in Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Saturday by the Director of Public Affairs, Malam Auwalu Umar, the university described the viral video making the rounds online as “false, misleading, and artificially generated.”

According to Umar, the video, which alleged that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna with the help of ABU researchers and obtained equipment from Pakistan’s AQ Khan network, was a deliberate attempt to misinform the public.

“The claims are entirely baseless and unsubstantiated. The content was created using artificial intelligence to distort facts about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear research,” Umar stated.

He explained that, contrary to the claims, most scientists at the university’s Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad in the 1980s and had no involvement in uranium enrichment or weapons development.

Umar further clarified that Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor, known as the Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1), was established in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and officially commissioned in 2004.

He emphasised that the university remains committed to transparent and peaceful scientific research aimed at national development, not warfare.

ABU’s statement comes amid growing public concern over the authenticity of AI-generated misinformation, which has become increasingly difficult for unsuspecting audiences to distinguish from verified content.