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Benin Antiquities "Oyinbo GIVE IT BACK !" Edo congress calls for return of BENIN artifacts, oil wells

Posted by Egbes Ogbeide on June 9, 2009 at 11:16am
From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, BeninA SOCIO-CULTURAL group in Edo State, the Benin National Congress (BNC), yesterday called on the Federal Government to intervene in its fight to prevail on the British government to return Benin artifacts carted away since 1897.The group also urged President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to return 27 oil wells belonging to Edo, which were ceded to Ondo and Delta states by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida.They also called for amnesty for the 27 soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment in Akure for mutiny.In a letter to the President and signed by the association' s vice president and secretary, Omowemwen Imadiyi and Osazee Erhiamato, the group said it would not hesitate to begin mobilisation with a view to instituting legal action against the British government to force it to return the artifacts.It argued that Britain's continued retention of the "historical and ancestral" materials ran contrary to diplomatic relations between the two countries."It will be fair and patriotic for the Presidency to review its foreign policy relations with Britain within the context of the backlog of oppressive tendencies, which have undermined Nigeria's collective aspiration - to be together for peace, progress and justice, as any attempt to downplay these fundamentals of unity and accord will have far-reaching negative effects on our national integrity, if not now, certainly later."The Benin National Congress as you may well know is a foremost pan-Edo socio-cultural organisation that has been at the forefront of the struggle for the just and unconditional repatriation of all Benin artifacts, which were looted from the palace of the Oba of Benin, 'primitive' museums and the shrines of the people of the kingdom under the pretext of colonialism" , they added.The statement said the ceding of Edo oil wells to other states was an injustice and depletion of the state's revenue, which is needed for its development.The group urged that the soldiers be granted amnesty, since according them, it was discovered that they were actually shortchanged by their superiors.
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