Benin Group Faults Position of Igun-Igbesanwan-Owina Descendants on Custody of Looted Artefacts

Adibe Emenyonu

A socio-cultural group, Benin Solidarity Movement (BSM) worldwide, has tackled the Igun-Igbesamwan-Owina descendants on their position over the custody of the expected looted artefacts from the palace of the Ovbuoramwen N’Ogbasi, the Oba of Benin Kingdom in 1887.

The Igun-Igbesanwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America in an open letter to the federal government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had demanded that the proposed return of the artefacts should not be taken to the palace of the Oba of Benin but to those who originally carved them.

The group’s position, which was contained in the letter titled: ‘Open Letter on the Return of Benin Court Arts Now Referred to as Benin Artefacts’, and endorsed by Erhauyi Isokponwu and Adolor Oviasu-Oreoghene, claimed that thousands of looted artefacts to be returned from Germany were looted from their ancestral shrines in their quarters at Igun, Igbesamwan and Owina, located outside the ancient palace.

But the BSM in a statement signed by its President, Curtis Eghosa Ugbo, and Mrs. Esohe Adun, the group acting secretary, which was made available to journalists in Benin-city, Edo State, condemned the position of the Igun-Igbesanwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America, saying they lack the knowledge of Benin history.

According to BSM “Our attention has been drawn to a publication in some daily newspapers by a proxy group-Worldwide members of Igun-Igbesanwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America-over where the proposed looted Benin artefacts should be housed.

“Firstly, we want to know if the group is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and also to know the identities of the individuals that signed the publication so as to set the record straight for them to understand the history of the Benin Kingdom, which they seem not to be familiar with, according to their publication.”

The BSM further stated that: “It is a known fact that the Benin artefacts were taken from the palace of the Oba of Benin by the British invaders and not at the Igun, Igbesamwan-Owina as claimed by their publication, and it is also a known fact that those artefacts were not taken from their various homes because, according to the history told us by our grandparents and from various historic books, those artefacts (Benin bronzes) were made at various locations and were brought to the Oba palace and were paid for by the Oba of Benin, and they served various purposes including decorating the palace.”

The Benin cultural group, while querying the whereabouts of Igun-Igbesamwan-Owina descendants when the past and present Obas, through diplomatic relations, were canvassing for the return of the looted artefacts, noted that it is an obvious fact that if the Benin Kingdom did not loss the battle, the British could not have been able to create the country Nigeria.”

It further called the attention of group in Europe and America that it has always remained an indubitable fact that “the Benin sovereignty spread from the Heart of Benin to Lagos; Dahomey now Republic of Benin, even to some part of Ghana (the Ga tribe of Ghana are Binis); and the people from Delta State are part of Benin Kingdom-it (Benin) was the only barrier to the British. The year 1914 that the exiled king of Benin join his ancestors was the year the British amalgamated the South and North to form Nigeria, and publicly declared that it was no longer the Oba of Benin that is the king but the White man.”