Saturday, June 7, 2025 - A 23-year-old man identified as Chiemelie Nnaji, has d!ed after drowning at a river during an exorcism ritual in Enugu.
The Nation reports that the victim was popularly known for
roasting pork and chicken in front of a motel in Obiagu.
He was however known within the neighbourhood to be
suffering from epilepsy.
It was gathered the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon,
June 5, when, Chiemelie’s mother, popularly known as Ezenwanyi, took him and a
middle-aged client, to the river known as Mmiri Ani at Obiagu area of the state
capital for a spiritual cleansing. It was gathered that the spiritualist was
coaching his son to take over the business from her.
Residents of the community say while Ezenwanyi was using a
native fowl to conduct the exorcism ritual inside the river, Chiemelie relapsed
into epilepsy and fell deep into the river that was chest deep.
His mother, who was said to be filled ‘with the spirits,’
however continued chanting incantations, refusing to render any assistance to
the drowning man despite being notified by her client.
It was further learnt it was the female client who forced
the exercise to stop and raised the alarm that attracted people from the
neighbourhood, who helped to rescue Chiemelie’s drowning body while he was said
to still be alive. He sadly died after being rejected at two different
hospitals.
“When we got
to the river, we met Ezenwanyi chanting incantations while the other woman was
crying helplessly. But we managed to bring him out and took him to the
hospital. The two hospitals we took him to rejected him. It was at the third
hospital that he was pronounced dead,” an eyewitness said
The state police command is said to have arrested the
spiritualist.
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