Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, has described as false a social media video alleging that the institution was involved in developing a Nuclear-Weapon for Nigeria.
Director of Public Affairs Directorate of the university, Malam Auwalu Umar, stated this in a statement issued to the News Agency of Nigeria in Zaria.
He said the viral AI-generated video aims to misinform the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.
The director explained that 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 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.
He explained that Nigeria’s nuclear activities had 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.