Finally, Mexico Returns Stolen Ile-Ife Artefact to Nigeran Govt after Decades of Theft
- Nigeria has finally received its stolen Ile-Ife's Ori-Olokun artefact
- The sculpture was presented to the Nigerian government by the Mexican government
- FG said efforts have been intensified to secure the Nigerian porous borders in order to prevent further theft of Nigeran historical artefacts
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The historical Ile-Ife artefact which was stolen many years ago has been repatriated to Nigeria from Mexico.
The artefact was received on Thursday, April 8, by the Nigerian government represented by the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Source: Twitter
The Charge d’Affaires of the Nigerian Mission in Mexico, Yakubu Dadu, presented the Ile-Ife artefact to the minister in Abuja.
Speaking on the development, the foreign affairs minister hailed the Mexican government and also extended thanks to the Nigerian mission in the country for the great work.
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Onyeama stated that the federal government has channelled more efforts towards taking possession of numerous historical artefacts stolen by colonialists over 100 years ago.
He also maintained that the Nigerian government will secure the borders of the country to prevent future theft, The Nation reports.
“There are lots of measures in place to end the theft of artefacts. There are countries-to-countries agreements.
“Recently, there was an ECOWAS Head of Cultural Directors Ministries which papers were presented by ECOWAS countries to restitute some of these our properties from any country that they are found.
“If you find that of Nigeria in Côte d’Ivoire, they bring it, and if you find theirs here, we return it to them,” Gimba Muhammed, who is the acting director-general of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) said during the presentation.
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Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the University of Aberdeen disclosed plans to return the Benin Bronze, a historical artefact stolen from Nigeria by the colonial imperialists.
The disclosure was made on Thursday, March 25, by Neil Curtis, Aberdeen's head of museums and special collections, who said the Bronze representing an Oba, or ruler of the Kingdom of Benin was "blatantly looted."
Thousands of artworks, sculptures, metal castings and historical artefacts were carted away by British soldiers from the old Benin Kingdom in 1897.
Source: Legit.ng
