NAN-H-60
Museum
By Mohammed Adam
Yola, Feb. 23, 2017 (NAN) Alhaji Saidu Audu, the Director- General of Adamawa Museum and Monuments, has called for national and international support to rehabilitate the Sukur World Heritage site.
The site, situated at the Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State was destroyed by insurgents in 2014.
Audu made the call on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola.
Audu said that Sukur is the first officially listed World Heritage site in Nigeria by UNESCO.
He explained that Sukur cultural heritage was an ancient settlement with a recorded history of ancient iron smelting technology dating back to the 16th Century.
Audu said that the site was attacked and burnt in September 2014 when Boko Haram invaded Madagali Local Government.
“Sukur ancient Iron smelting heritage is the first Nigerian landmark to be listed on the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO at one of its International Conferences held in Marekkesh, Morocco in 1999.
“Four modern research and international conference centres and VIP accommodations among other structures at the site were burnt completely by Boko Haram,” he said.
The Director-General said that the state government was making effort in collaboration with the Federal Government to reconstruct the site.
“And our doors are open at any given time for support from national and international cultural and heritages organisations to rebuild the site,” Audu said.
Also speaking on the site, the Chairman of Madagali Local Government, Alhaji Yusuf Muhammed, also appealed for the resuscitation of the site in view of its economic importance.
Muhammed explained that before the attack, tourists from Europe, Asian and America used to visit it.
According to the chairman, the site was once a centre where researchers within and outside Nigeria came to conduct researches. (NAN)
AMA/YMU/GY
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Edited by Yakubu Uba/Grace Yussuf