Nigeria blows Pak cover, spills beans on N-sale

Author: AP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 4, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/536038.cms

Pakistan's top military official has offered to share unspecified military assistance and "nuclear power" with Nigeria's armed forces, the defence ministry said.
 
Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan, chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, told Nigerian defence minister Rabiu Kwankwaso that Pakistan was " working out the dynamics " to help Nigeria's armed forces "to strengthen its military capability and to acquire nuclear power," Nigeria's defence ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
 
The communiqué pointed out that Pakistan has nuclear-tipped missiles, but did not say whether Pakistan is offering such technology or if Nigeria seeks such weapons.
 
Nigeria's defence minister urged intensified cooperation between the two countries, adding Nigeria was capable of helping Pakistan train its soldiers, if needed, the statement said.
 
Khan, who was in Nigeria's capital Abuja on a scheduled visit, explained to his counterparts that "Pakistan had to take its destiny into its own hands to become a nuclear state because of the regular threats posed by hostile neighbours," the statement said.
 
The communiqué did not elaborate and officials of Nigeria's presidency and defence ministry did not answer their phones.
 
The announcement came less than two months after Nigeria's vice presidency announced that North Korea agreed to share missile technology with Nigeria, an offer that was subsequently denied by North Korean officials and downplayed by a spokeswoman to Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.
 

Back                          Top