Edo State government wants the United Nations General Assembly to prevail on the British government and other suspected looters to return stolen Benin artifacts.
The government, in an address read by the special adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on art, culture and tourism, Mr Orobosa Omo-Ojo, during an exhibition on Benin Art at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday, also urged the British government to pay reparation for the economic benefits accruing to the artifacts for all those years.
Said Orobosa, "The ugly and unwarranted episode of 1897, when the British government planned and invaded the Benin Empire marked the turning point in the history of Benin and the black civilization in general.
To us, the invasion of Benin City and the subsequent burning of the palace and the city are comparable to late Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran , which eventually led to the occupation of Iraq by the so-called allied forces.