Man 23, Drowns During Ritual Cleansing Exercise By Mother in Enugu

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

With the dust raised by the unsavoury ritualistic  escapades of the now arrested Enugu State “native doctor and spiritualist” Levi Obieze ,a.k.a. Ezeani yet to settle ,the State has once again been placed on the spot for the same reason .

This followed the death of a middle aged man, Chiemelie Nnaji, during a purported spiritual cleansing exercise by his mother, simply identified as  “Ezenwanyi”  at Mmiri Ani River in Obiagu, Enugu State  on Thursday, June, 5, 2025.

According to eyewitness accounts,vNnaji ,23,an epileptic patient was taken along by her spiritualist mother to perform a cleansing and ritualistic sacrifice for a client at the bank of the river.

The self acclaimed  Ezenwanyi (water princess)  insisted on taken her son along for the exercise owing to her intention for him to inherit the trade.

Locals say the business runs in the family.

However, when her mother was at the thick of the spiritual cleansing exercise ,marked by incantations ,with a white cock inside the river ,Nnaji suffered his usual epileptic crisis and plunged into the deep side of the river .

Strangely and curiously too, her mother never cared to come to her rescue ,but was more concentrated on her exorcism rituals.

All efforts by the supposed beneficiary of the cleansing exercise, her client,  to  get Ezenwanyi to stop the process and come to the rescue of her drowning son were rebuffed

This was said to have forced the client to raise the alarm,calling for help from people.

When eventually help came ,it was too late and too little .

Harpless Nnaji who was rescued l unconscious, was regrettably  pronounced dead by the third medical facility he  was rushed to after being rejected by two previous hospitals.

Although, the Enugu State police authorities were yet to react officially  to the gory incident as the time of reporting, however, one of the locals revealed that Ezenwanyi, Nnaji’s mother, has been arrested by  security agents.