Don’t Return Looted Artefacts to Oba, Say Descendants of Bini Bronze Casters

The descendants of Bini bronze casters have appealed to the federal government not to release the looted artefacts from Germany to the Oba of Benin, claiming that thousands of Bronzes and Ivories were looted from their ancestral shrines in their quarters at Igun, Igbesamwan and Owina, just outside the ancient palace.

Their appeal is contained in a letter to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, signed by Erahuyi Isokponwu, President – Europe; and Adolor Oviasu-Oreoghene, President – America on the platform of Igun-IgbesamwanOwina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America.

They claimed that ever before the Portuguese explorers and Christian missionaries sojourned to Benin Kingdom, the Bronze Smiths of Igun, Igbesamwan and

Owina, who “were the ancestral producers of all Benin Bronzes were our fathers and owners of over 75 per cent of the looted Benin artefacts.

“During the infamous British expedition of 1897, Benin treasures that were soft targets for looting of artefacts were Igun, Igbesamwan and Owina quarters, because, these were the production or factory bases of the artefacts.

“Our forebears traded on them as their core means of livelihood from generations to generations. It is absolute falsehood to continually reel out contrived rhetoric to deny the ancestral makers of the artefacts, and we appeal to the Honourable Minister, that this injustice must stop forthwith.”

They stated that all the artefacts looted from the palace under the reign of Oba Ovoranmwen were gifted to preceding Obas of Benin before Oba Ovoramwen.