View gallery . 
 
 Has the the Riemann Hypothesis – perhaps math’s most famous problem, which gone unsolved for 156 years – finally been cracked? 
 
 A Nigerian professor claims to have found the answer – and now could be in line to win a $1million (£658,000) prize. 
 
 Academic Dr Opeyemi Enoch, above, from the Federal University of Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Nigeria, says he was persuaded by his students to tackle it. 
 
 The hypothesis, which was proposed by mathematician Bernard Riemann in 1859, concerns the distribution of prime numbers. 
 
 It one of seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics, puzzles chosen by The Clay Mathematics Institute that carries a prize of £658,000 if solved. 
 
 But Enoch, who claims to have made the breakthrough in 2010, says it was the challenge itself, not the money, that made him devote his time to it. 
 
 “The motivation was because my students trusted that the solution could come from me – not because the financial reward and that was why I started trying to solve the problem in the first place,” he told the BBC. 
 
 
 
 View gallery . 
 
 The Riemann Hypothesis (State and University Library at Göttingen) 
 
 
 
 “Dr Enoch first investigated and then established the claims of Riemann,” said a statement from FUOYE. 
 
 “He went on to consider and to correct the misconceptions that were communicated by mathematicians in the past generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be established. 
 
 "He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these undiscovered solutions. He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography, quantum information science and in quantum computers.” 
 
 However, the professor revealed that he has faced some bizarre criticism: “[Some people asked] if this man can solve the Riemann problem…why should he not be able to provide solutions to Nigeria’s problems?“ Dr Enoch said. 
 
 “Some guys celebrated it, some criticised it – saying what has that got to do with putting food on the tables of Nigerians.” 
 
 The Clay Mathematics Institute is yet to confirm that the problem has been solved. 
 
 
 
 (Credit: This Is Africa/Twitter) 
 
 

 Story highlights Riemann Hypothesis solution sought after 156-year wait 
 
 Solution must be published and accepted by the mathematics community before $1m prize can be claimed 
 
 (CNN) Nigerian professor Opeyemi Enoch Wednesday insisted he has found a solution to the complex Riemann Hypothesis. 
 
 Following several media reports casting doubt on his claim, Enoch said: "I have a proof and the mathematics community is behind me." 
 
 The senior lecturer in mathematics at the Federal University in Oye Ekiti, Nigeria, said the project behind solving the 156-year-old math puzzle had taken "seven good years" and that comments from detractors had not dampened his sense of achievement. 
 
 "People have the privilege and the right to say whatever they want to say," he said, adding "I have not really been giving attention to some of the comments." 
 
 Enoch said he first delivered his findings on November 11 at the International Conference on Mathematics and Computer Science held in Vienna, in an oral presentation called "A Matrix That Generates the Point Spectral of the Riemann Zeta Function." 
 
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 Here’s a tweet from Alex Bellos this morning: 
 
 BBC claims Nigerian solves Riemann Hypothesis, most famous problem in maths. Surely a hoax! https://t.co/Wkltfkh2P3 https://t.co/UHGy9W8shC — Alex Bellos (@alexbellos) November 17, 2015 
 
 He’s right to be surprised – as reported in Vanguard, a Nigerian newspaper: 
 
 The 156-year old Riemann Hypothesis, one of the most important problems in Mathematics, has been successfully resolved by Nigeria Scholar, Dr. Opeyemi Enoch. 
 
 Suspicion levels are raised, as the paper also reports: 
 
 Three of the [Clay Millenium Prize] problems had been solved and the prizes given to the winners. This makes it the fourth to be solved of all the seven problems. 
 
 Unless we missed something, that’s not massively true – the only Millennium Prize problem solved so far is the Poincaré conjecture. 
 
 So who is this Nigerian mathematician? Dr Opeyemi Enoch is a professor with the Federal University in Oye Ekiti, Nigeria. The article says: 
 
 Dr. Enoch had previously designed a Prototype of a silo for peasant farmers and also discovered a scientific technique for detecting and tracking someone on an evil mission. 
 
 So he straddles the disciplines, at least. This story is made more interesting by the presence of a serious interview with the BBC World Service (shocking behaviour) in which he’s even asked ‘What will you do with the $1 million?’. 
 
 Unfortunately, it looks like in this case it’s not a real proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, and this post on a Nigerian discussion forum says emphatically he has not solved it. As mentioned in that post, there’s a paper on academia.edu under his name, which is actually a copy of a paper by someone called Werner Raab (retired). Raab’s website – http://www.raab-math.at/ is empty, and has a single broken link to “the truth of the Riemann hypothesis”. Some digging reveals that that URL has never worked. Confusingly, Enoch seems to be gathering papers about the Riemann Hypothesis on academia.edu under his own name. 
 
 The “proof” was presented at this legitimate academic conference (yes, the URL is “computer.conference-site.com”) which does appear to have taken place – although the photos don’t seem to show the kind of turnout you’d expect for presenting a result of this magnitude. Here’s the proceedings of the conference (Enoch’s presentation is “A matrix that generates the point spectral of the Riemann Zeta function”). It also looks like the local organiser of the conference is quite a character. (What’s the deal with fuzzy logic and definitely legitimate academic proceedings?) 
 
 There’s another article denying the truth of the claim in Nigerian newspaper The Herald. Marcus du Sautoy has also been consulted, naturally (and taken the opportunity to plug his book, well done): 
 
 Has Riemann been proved? Check out my interview @BBCr4today Verdict: Music of the Primes doesn't need updating yet https://t.co/eKRWvVA3R2 — Marcus du Sautoy (@MarcusduSautoy) November 17, 2015 
 
 As a last-minute addition to the show, Marcus’ bit isn’t listed in the schedule, but you can listen to the whole episode on the BBC website. 
 
 So sadly, nobody’s cracked this 156-year old problem, although the method Enoch might be trying to use is one approach that is currently being tried by more well-known researchers – here’s some serious info about attempts to prove the Riemann hypothesis by looking at the zeros as eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator on a Hilbert space. Alain Connes also recently wrote a paper about how you might (and might not) go about actually solving it. 
 
 As always with such long-standing results, there are plenty of incorrect proof attempts – although the arXiv seems to have done a good job keeping out crank proofs of the Riemann Hypothesis recently (or, the cranks are on holiday). All our roving reporter CLP can find is this from August. 
 
 The last word on the subject should probably go to the Clay Mathematics Institute website, which at time of publication still says: 
 
 Update 19/11/2015: Coverage continues in “Riemann hypothesis not proved, part 2”!
– "I know this will come to you as a surprise because you do not know me, prestigious mathematical institute. I am Dr. Opeyemi Enoch of Nigeria, and I have solved your unsolvable math problem. Please send me $1 million prize, and I believe that at the end of the day, you will have my proof." The BBC set off a minor academic shockwave Tuesday when it reported on a Nigerian professor who claims to have solved the Riemann Hypothesis—one of seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics with a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute attached. He tells the BBC his students convinced him to solve the 156-year-old problem, and he did it because they believed in him. According to Yahoo, the Hypothesis was first proposed by Bernard Riemann in 1859 and has to do with the distribution of prime numbers. Despite the BBC asking Enoch what he plans on doing with his winnings, not everyone is convinced the prize is his. CNN reports the institute still considers the problem unsolved, as Enoch hasn't contacted them, published his solution, or even made his solution public. Aperiodical did a little digging on Enoch and his claim. According to the mathematics blog, Enoch is apparently taking credit for someone else's paper on the Riemann Hypothesis, though he did discover a scientific method for identifying if someone is on an evil mission. Other revelations about Enoch's claim include broken links, empty websites, fake-sounding URLs, and poorly attended conferences. (A lot of mathematicians have met awful fates.)