A 20-year-old man, simply identified as Chidiebere David, drowned on Thursday night in the swimming pool of a new but popular hotel on Margret Avenue, GRA, Aba in Abia, during a friend’s birthday party.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Abia, Mr Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident on Friday.

“The man is about 20 years old. His name is Chidiebere David. He accompanied his friends to a birthday party in the hotel and got drowned there. That was exactly what happened,’’ he said.

Ogbonna however did not say if the police was foreclosing further investigations into the matter.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the deceased went with his friends who were over 16 in number to the hotel to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

Chidiebere who hailed from Imo died at the pool with no one realising that he had drowned until sometimes later.

NAN further gathered that when the deceased colleagues saw his body inside the pool and made frantic efforts to save him, they discovered that he had died.

The relatives of the young man were said to have later arrived at the scene, taken his body and deposited at a morgue close to the hotel.

An anonymous source within the hotel told NAN that the friends of the deceased were arrested and taken into custody same night by policemen from Aba Area Command. (NAN)