A 23-year-old man, Chiemelie Nnaji, has died after drowning at a river during an exorcism ritual in Enugu.

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 that the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon 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 her son to take over the business from her.

Eye witnesses told The Nation that 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 acted 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 that 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.

“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,” the source said.

Operatives of Enugu police command from Ogui Police Division were said to have arrested the spiritualist.

Enugu police spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe, did not respond to an enquiry about the incident as of the time of filing this report. (The Nation: Text, Excluding Headline)