BENIN—THE Benin International Chamber of Commerce (BICC) has promised to transfer the corpse of Ovonrawmen N’ogbaisi to Benin, with a view to building a monument round it to serve as a tourist outpost.

This comes as the chambers has also concluded plans to provide free hospital and educational equipment estimated at over $300,000 to  Edo state government.

President of Chambers, Mr. Billy Osawaru, who disclosed this to Vanguard in Benin, said the move was all in efforts to promote tourism in Edo State.

“We are looking at reviving tourism in Edo state. We are actually looking at how we can set up a commission; we are also looking at how we can bring back the corpse of Oba Ovonrawmen to Benin and build a tourist industry around it.

“We have a total package that we will like to sit with the state Commissioner for Tourism to discuss,” Osawaru said.

He expressed the chambers’ desire to invest over $100,000 into tourism, adding that it would build a big tourist center around the corpse so as to boost economic activities in the state.

Osawaru, who disclosed that the group had sent a proposal to Governor Adams Oshiomohle, said the chambers commence operations as soon as it received the nod of the state government.

He said the objective of the BICC was to assist the Comrade Governor in transforming the state from a civil service state to an industrialized state, saying that the state would stand to benefit immensely from the gesture of a conducive business environment as provided by the state government.

According to Osawaru, who is based in the United States , “ we have sent proposal to the Edo state government hoping to hear back from them regarding how the Benin International Chamber of Commerce can work with them.

“For instance we are willing to help them with free medical equipment, we have up to forty full containers from the United States for free. And we are ready to equip the hospitals with solar because it is of no use bringing in those equipments with out electricity to power them.

“Like I said before we have a training programme for the legislators, Lagos state has done it and I think they enjoyed it.

We have some for the local government chairmen as well. We also have a company that is willing to come down here for power generation.

“We are prepared to invest over two hundred thousand dollars in Edo state because it is our state and we must help the governor to achieve his aims.

“We come here in the summer and pick some primary schools that we feel needs a make over. We will foot the bill for their feedings, buy materials they make. And right now, we are giving arms to orphanage homes and we kind of set up a micro credit for our parents that are traders.”