The nuclear security workshop in Nigeria formerly planned for 25 April to 6 May, 2022 held on 23 May to 3 June, 2022.
The venue was the Auditorium, Centre for Energy Research and Training, CERT, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria.
The postponement became necessary because rail service from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to Kaduna was suspended following the train bombing and kidnapping on 28 March, 2022 in Katari, Kaduna State.
Out of the 398 passengers onboard the Abuja-Kaduna train, 62 were unaccounted for.
Eight of the passengers were killed in the attack.
The kidnappers shortly released a video of the missing passengers they are holding captive and demanded a ransom of five to 100 million naira for each of them.
On 6 March, 2021 gunmen attacked the staff quarters in Kaduna International Airport and kidnapped nine persons.
On 26 March, 2022 bandits shot and killed an airport security man by the perimeter fence of Kaduna airport before being challenged by soldiers who killed 12 of them.
The Abuja-Kaduna highway is no better as it is a hot spot, recording at least one major case of banditry and kidnapping every fortnight.
Outside security concerns, another reason for the postponement is that Workers’ Day, May 1st, fell within that period and was a public holiday.
Also, the Moslem festival of Eid-el-Fitri, which was on 2 and 3 May, 2022 were public holidays.
Apart from the fundamentals of the subject, the organisers say, the training workshop exhaustively, treated neutron detection, charged particles detection, Gamma spectroscopy and the different types of detectors.
The workshop dwelt on the national and international frameworks for nuclear security threats, insider threats, and nuclear security threat assessment.
A series of modules and practical exercises of the workshop includes a radiation detection system search and location.
Participants were regulators, military, para-military personnel, scientists and engineers, legal practitioners, operators using nuclear and other radioactive materials.
All the participants had a minimum of a first degree, or its equivalent, in a related field with cognate experience.
The Director of CERT, Professor Sunday Jonah, said participants earned a professional certificate from CERT, Zaria, at the end of the workshop.
