Nigeria: BNC Gives FG 21-Day Ultimatum to Render Account On Benin Artifacts

Posted to the web 22 July 2008 Simon Ebegbulem THE Benin National Congress (BNC), a socio-cultural organization, yesterday, handed a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to render account of all the Benin artifacts at its disposal or face the wrath of the people of Benin Kingdom. It also called on the federal government, to dissolve the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) because of their alleged failure to recover the Benin artifacts estimated at over one hundred million dollars, that were looted during the British invasion of the ancient Benin Kingdom. In a statement signed by the National President of the BNC, Mr Aiyemenkhue Edokpolo made available to Vanguard, the group expressed their frustrations in bringing back the stolen artifacts, regretting the federal government through the NCMM had... [read full story]