These sound fake but if true, while Saturn's death was expected, Oda has gone out of his way to make sure it is in the lamest way possible...
It would also mean Gorosei are indeed Imu's creation that he can remotely affect, which is also lame. They could possibly just be Six pains v2.0, one puppet master displaying his powers through six bodies...
So the haki they release is Imu's haki and Zoro's Nittoryu was enough to match Imu in a haki clash...
This is your #1?