46-year-old Nigerian pastor dies while fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in a bush

A Nigerian pastor who embarked on a 40-day fast has been reported dead.

The 46-year-old evangelist Chidi Eke, according to his own ministry, was fasting to seek God’s face, but passed on in Eziala Nguru in Ngor Okpala council area of Imo State.

According to local media reports, the deceased had plans to start his own ministry and even announced that he would go to the wilderness to obtain powers from God, abandoning his wife and two children in Lagos since last year to embark on evangelism.

“During the first and second week of his fast, people who had gone to their farms heard him singing and praying loudly. But after the third week nobody heard his voice again and most people thought that perhaps he must have gone deep into meditation. But one of his church members, Cyriacus Opara became worried and insisted that he needed to visit him at the forest.

“When Opara approached… they told him that they don’t actually know the exact location where he was and that Eke had earlier issued a stern warning that he did not want any visitor because he had left his phone and money at home and had only gone with his Bible and gown,” a resident told The Nation.

Opara and one other managed to make their way into the bush where the pastor had been camping only to find him dead.

“Eke returned to the village with the claim that he has come to answer the call of God”, one of his relatives said, adding that Eke is the only son of his mother.

Following the development, the community has banned people from fasting and praying in the bush.