Artefacts: Igun bronze casters dissociate from publication against Oba of Benin

A group under the aegis of Igun Bronze Casters Guild (IBCG) in Igun community, Benin, Edo State, has dissociated itself from a publication by the Igun-Igbesamwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America against the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, on the plan to return looted artefacts to Benin.

The group which  protested at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo Council, carried placards with various inscriptions such as “We debunk the claims of Erahuyi Isokponwu and Adolor Oviasu-Oreoghene; they should come out to clear themselves, among others.

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Speaking during the protest, the President of IBCG, Kingsley Osarenren Inneh, said they were not part of the publication against the Oba of Benin.

Mr Inneh said, “We dissociate ourselves from America/Europe fake descendants. We belong to the Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo; we are with His Royal Majesty, Oba of Benin.

“No individual or group can make us to become enemies of the Benin monarch, Igun community will always be loyal to the Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo.”

According to him, they operate directly under the instructions and guidance of the oba and not independently.

He noted that the oba and the palace were the right authorities to be handed over the soon-to-be returned stolen artefacts as they were looted from the palace.

He further said, “We wish to state that whoever are the mischief makers acting behind the scene and suddenly becoming so generous by doling out large chunks of money to their acolytes and social media influencers to cause confusion where none exists will not go unrewarded by the ancestors.”

A group under the aegis of Igun-Igbesamwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement of Europe and America had last Friday in an advertorial in national dailies claimed that 75 per cent of the artefacts looted from Benin Kingdom during the 1897 British invasion of the kingdom were from Igun-Igbesamwan-Owina.