By Ikhili EBALU, Benin City.
A Socio Cultural Group, the EDO NATIONAL VOICE (ENV), has condemned Abba Isa Tijanni on a Statement credited to him , saying the gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28th which gave Oba of Benin Kingdom , Ewuare 11 the right of ownership and management of all returned and yet to be returned thousands of stolen artefacts was not too clear.
The group in a statement said , Abba Isa Tijanni is a lightweight amongst those we have defeated and dealt with and should purge himself now as he should not get involve in things that he knew nothing about.
Abba Isa Tijanni has recently In a Statement said “the gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28th which gave , Oba of Benin Kingdom , Ewuare 11 the right of ownership and management of all returned and yet to be returned thousands of stolen artefacts was not too clear.”
ENV In a Statement signed by the President, Iyamu Osaro Culture and Secretary General
Comrade Collins Osaghae Amadin, and made available to journalists in Benin city said,
“Few days ago, our attention were drawn to the statement credited to Abba Isa Tijanni that the gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28th which gave our great King, Oba of Benin Kingdom the right of ownership and management of all returned and yet to be returned thousands of stolen artefacts was not too clear.”
According to them, “It could be recall that the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has postponed the return of more than 100 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria after a presidential directive gave our great King, Oba of Benin Kingdom the right of ownership and custodian of all returned artefacts.
Adding that, “It’s also on record that an official gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28 said the Oba of Benin was the rightful owner of all returned Benin Bronzes and was responsible for the management of all places where the artefacts were kept. However Abba Isa Tijanni, Director General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments said the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had planned to return 116 artefacts this month but this was put on hold after the decree started circulating last month and it was postponed because the gazette is not very clear on some issues and we wanted to clarify to find out which body is responsible for the signing of the agreement (to repatriate the artefacts),”
Therefore, we want to ask Abba Isa Tijanni which part of the gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari that isn’t clear?? or could it be that the gazette was written in foreign language that made him to say that some part of the gazette was not clear or is he now usurping the position of President Muhammadu Buhari or saying that his employer doesn’t know what he did as regards the signing of the gazette or has Abba Tijanni forgotten so soon that the Commission has in the past signed agreements to return looted artefacts, including from Cambridge college and Germany and returned same to Oba of Benin Kingdom who is the rightful owner of all Benin stolen Artefacts??
“To this end, we therefore called on Abba Tijanni to immediately write to The University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to return the more than 100 Benin Bronzes to our great Oba of Benin Kingdom as contained in the gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari having misled them and tender unreserved apology to the good people of Benin Kingdom for playing a watering script handed over to him by those we have since defeated and dealt with over the return and management of Benin stolen Artefacts.”