Some staff of the National Museum of Unity, Enugu, have blamed the National Commission for Museums and Monument (NCMM) for planning to demolish their houses in Enugu without due notice.

Some of them who spoke to journalists on Saturday said they needed to be given adequate notice before the demolition.

A correspondent who visited the scene reports that the staff lived in an empty land within the museum premise in Enugu, and caterpillars had started clearing the area.

Many have lived there for 15 to 20 years on the management’s approval and pay rent to them, while some have started leaving the premises.

A driver, Patrick Mmuolokwu, said he retired from service a few months ago, and his pension had not been paid, stressing that he had been surviving with assistance from his wife and friends.

“Where do they want me to go? They should pay me my pension to enable me to look for alternative accommodation,” he said.

Another staff, who pleaded anonymity, said they did not just walk into the building.

“Our worry is not because they want to demolish our houses, but they should have given us the notice to prepare ourselves,” he said.

The staff said the contractor told them to vacate the place before January 23.

“Is the contractor our employer? The office should have informed us they wanted to do a project where we built our houses.”

Reacting, the curator, Enugu Museum, Aloysius Duru, said the federal government initiated the project to build a theatre, museum kitchen, craft centre, auditorium, and children’s park, among others.

He said the project was a concession between the federal government and a private investor under which some parcels of land would be given to the investor to develop and manage for 25 years, after which it would revert to the museum.

“We are not doing the demolition already but clearing the area for development, and we will only demolish where the staff is leaving and shops later.

“I told the engineer to give them time to relocate, and on January 6, we began pulling down trees and clearing grasses,” Mr Duru said.

The curator added that staff living there were adequately served notice, adding that when the project would be completed, guest houses would be built where some of them would be relocated.

Mr Duru said the project would last one year and eight months, after which it would be handed over to the museum to be running. 

(NAN)