Nigeria Denies Nuclear Bomb Bid

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-5-2004 | Robin Gedye

[blam]

Nigeria denies nuclear bomb bid

By Robin Gedye, Foreign Affairs Writer and Ahmed Rashid in Lahore
(Filed: 05/03/2004)

Nigeria denied yesterday that it had discussed getting nuclear technology from Pakistan.

It dismissed as a "typographical error" a statement by its defence ministry that it had done so.

The scramble to apologise and Pakistan's assurances of a "baseless story and conspiracy to hurt our name" failed to calm alarm that Nigeria was possibly trying to create an atomic bomb.

The ministry's late night communique was clear. Gen Muhammad Aziz Khan, chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, had told Nigerian officials at a meeting on Wednesday that Pakistan was working out "how it can assist Nigeria's armed forces to strengthen its military capability and to acquire nuclear power".

But Nwachukwu Bellu, the Nigerian defence ministry spokesman who signed the communique, said it had all been "a mistake, a typographical error".

Asked whether officials from either country had discussed nuclear co-operation, he replied: "Nothing like that happened."

Islamabad furiously rejected the claim. "It is baseless," said Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman. "Pakistan's nuclear capability is solely for deterrence of aggression and it would never be in our national interest to share this technology."

The credibility of both sides on defence issues has been badly damaged in the past two months.

Nigeria admitted in January that it had held talks with North Korea on purchasing ballistic missiles and Pakistan's top nuclear scientist was exposed as an exporter of nuclear know-how.

Nigeria's original defence ministry claim, if true, would feed popular suspicions in Pakistan that the scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who took the blame for selling nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, would have relied on the army to take final decisions.

[cripplecreek]

If we could drag the Wilsons out of "seclusion" we could ask them, they claim to be experts.

[Gorzaloon]

Oh good, we can expect THESE:

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Hello Dear Friend! Your name was given to me by your local Chamber of Commerce, as a respectable and honourable business magnate.

I am Nwachukwu Bellu, the Nigerian defence ministry spokesman. My cousin has sold all our fissionable uranium to Leichenstien for ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS and we are prepared to pay a brokerage fee of 25% for a confidential agent to hold for us for one year! (&etc&etc

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Given their reliance on financial fraud and scams - and the quality of their efforts in those ventures - I find it hard to believe that they could operate a nuclear weapon.