Suspected hoodlums have razed the palace of traditional ruler of Oboro Amurie kingdom in Isu Local Government Area of Imo State Eze VO Ahamefule Duruoha 1.
It was gathered the mystery fire, which engulfed the palace took place around midnight.
It was learnt that some armed hoodlums drove into the palace and set it on fire.
The inferno destroyed property but the monarch and his children were rescued unhurt.
However, palace sources said the palace was not razed by gunmen.
Reacting to the incident, the Palace spokesman, Ezinwa N’Isu, Chief Sixtus Nnamdi Nsorom, urged the public to disregard such unfounded rumours linking gunmen to the fire outbreak.
“The entire public is hereby urged to disregard such unfounded rumours linking unknown gunmen as Eze Ahamefule of Oboro Amurie Kingdom has no problems with anybody by whatsoever nomenclature.
“The desecration of the sacred Kingdom of peace of Uzunakpuigwe remains condemnable and abomination in the highest order.
“While we thank God Almighty that no life was lost, we will continue to dig deep to unravel the root cause of the unfortunate incident. Eze Duruoha remains a universal king loved by all and sundry.
“Hence, the rumour of unknown gunmen is hereby jettisoned as it is untrue, fake and should be seen as null and void,” he stated.
Imo Police spokesman, CSP Michael Abattam told The Nation that investigation was ongoing to unravel the cause of the fire outbreak.
“We don’t know the cause of the fire, we are still investigating,” he said.
