Oba Of Benin receives returned Bronze from UK

The Oba of Benin on Saturday received the Bronze cockerel, Okpa, and the Oba head bronzes, ‘Ilahor’, returned from the United Kingdom (UK). The returned artefacts were delivered at the palace of the Oba in Benin City, Edo State, on Saturday by the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sarafa Tunji Ishola, and other officials of the Nigerian mission in the UK.

The Nigerian foreign mission officials arrived at the Benin Airport at 11.00 am on Saturday. From there, the delegation went to the palace for the presentation of the artefacts neatly packaged in a red-colour parcel.

Presenting the returned artefacts to the Oba, the High Commissioner, Sarafa Tunji Ishola, noted that the Bronze are being returned to the Oba as the custodian of the cultural heritage of the Benin Kingdom.

The Jesus College, University of Cambridge, in October 2021, returned a Benin Bronze, Okukor, to the Nigerian Government as part of the repatriation of looted Benin Bronze from the kingdom. The Okukor was looted from the Court of Benin during the British expedition of 1897, which was later given to the College in 1905 by the father of a student.

The University formally returned the cockerel, ‘Okukor’, to a Nigerian delegation in the UK in 2021.