Benin Monarch to receive repatriated artefacts Monday

The Benin Traditional Council (BTC) has scheduled Monday, December 13, for the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II to receive some Benin bronzes looted by the British government from the palace in 1897.

Frank Irabor, secretary of the council, in a statement issued to journalists in Benin City, said the event would also be an occasion to mark the celebration of the 5th coronation anniversary of the monarch, which was earlier postponed in honor of late Captain Wells Idahosa Okunbo.

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Irabor said the slated date was sequel to the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Britain to commence the return of the artefacts which were recently repatriated from Jesus College, Cambridge, England and University of Aberdeen, Scotland, to the Benin palace.

The traditional council noted that the directive “further shows that the Federal Government is the only constitutional authority to receive in custody Benin bronzes and other artefacts before being sent to their original owner, the Oba of Benin.

He listed the repatriated artefacts to be returned to the palace to include the “Benin Bronze cast of Okpa ‘Cockerel’ and Benin bronze burst of an Oba both from Jesus College, Cambridge, England and University of Aberdeen, Scotland.