Lagos officials inspect burnt Oba of Lagos’ palace

• Ooni of Ife sympathises, says incident mere coincidence
Official of the Lagos State government yesterday inspected the burnt portion of Iga Iduganran, the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Aremu Akiolu, on Lagos Island. The visit followed a fire that gutted a section of the palace on Tuesday.

A source within the palace disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who visited the palace. The source, who pleaded anonymity, said the officials visited the palace to assess the extent of damage but did not make any comment after the inspection.

The source said the fire affected a section of the new palace building and not the old one where traditional artifacts and relics are kept.

“A little portion of the new palace was affected by the fire outbreak but the ancient relics are still intact as they are kept at the former (old) palace

“The state government officials visited the palace this morning and had seen the burnt portion. I think it is their to fix whatever was destroyed by the fire,’’ the source said.

Normal activities have since resumed in and around the palace with traders and buyers going about their businesses.

However, while some Nigerians were linking the fire incident to the public snub Akiolu gave to the Ooni of Ife last week, the Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, has expressed sympathy to the Oba of Lagos, noting that the incident had nothing to do with the relationship between him and the Oba.

Moses Olafare, who is the spokesperson of the Ooni palace, said the fire incident had nothing to do with the kings’ relationship. He said: “We are not happy over the fact that the palace of Lagos king got burnt, we can only sympathise with the palace on the development.

“People are entitled to their own views. But what people say doesn’t mean that is the position of the palace. What happened is mere coincidence and should not be traced to the incident in Lagos, we send our sympathies .”