Angry residents of Akwadum in the New Juaben municipality of the Eastern region on Tuesday manhandled the fetish priest of the Densu river for failing to help retrieve the body of a 19-year-old teenager, Yaw Ayamba, a.k.a ‘Big show’ who reportedly got drowned in the river on Monday.

The angry residents accused the fetish priest of deceiving them by taking monies, two cocks and schnapps from the family of the drowned teenager to perform rituals in the river with a promise of supporting local swimmers to discover and retrieve the body.

The fetish priest after performing the rituals smeared the bare bodies of the local swimmers with hot pepper with assurance that the body will be retrieved but the numerous hours of search yielded no results.

The fetish priest is reported to have demanded some more money to perform another set of rituals for the gods to bring back the body on Thursday but this infuriated the residents who accosted him and attempted beat him until he was whisked way by some concerned individuals.

The drowned teenager and his friends went to swim in the Densu river which has its water level increased as a result of the heavy downpours in the New Juaben area in recent times.