The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has explained that there is no foul play over the death of Miss Mary Habila, a Nurse at the David Umahi Federal University of Medical Sciences, Uburu in Ebonyi State.
The late Habila doubles as the Minister's staff and lived in his guest house with other colleague before her death.
Expressing pain over Habila’s death, he described the deceased as his daughter and member of his family, urging people to refrain from playing dirty politics with her death.
He also pleaded with the immediate family to cooperate and allow an autopsy to be carried out to ascertain the real cause of her death.
Answering questions from journalists in Abuja, the Minister gave a detailed narrative of how Mary Habila passed on, adding: “I suspect no foul play in her death.
Repeatedly, the Minister said: “The deceased lady in question was like a daughter to me. She had stayed with me for 3 years, she was a staff of the Federal Medical University, and she was a nurse and not a physiotherapist.
Her family and my family are one family, and she has her medical records in Turkish Hospital.
Shortly before she passed on, the Minister acknowledged that she spoke to her boyfriend on phone, complaining that she was bleeding from the nose, and the boyfriend urged her to seek medical attention as according to her boyfriend who said: “listen, I will not complete this conversation since you are bleeding because it will increase the bleeding and she told the boyfriend not to cut the call.
According to his narrative, the boyfriend cut the call, and 3 minutes later he called again, she was not responding, and even in the morning she told the boyfriend she was going to the bathroom, because she locked her door, so even in the morning when they discovered that she wasn’t forthcoming, they broke the door and discovered her dead, the tap was still running.
Ostensibly referring to the fake news that trailed her death, Umahi, said: “But what happens in this country is that everything becomes an opportunity. Now there is a guest house where Mary Habila and the second medical person stayed, and that is very far from where I stayed.
“So, it means that God forbids that somebody dies in the Ministry of Works, the minister must be accountable for that death, is that what they are saying, is that they are saying that somebody cannot die? He said.
On the deceased past medical records, he asked, have these peddlers bothered to check her medical records? Do they know that this lady was like a daughter to me, but you know everything goes into politics?
He reinforced: “But what I say to people – be careful, life is spiritual, when you want to use the unfortunate death of a young girl to play politics.”
Delving into the spiritual he said: “If we have hands in the killing, it will follow us in our family, but if we don’t have hands and you are jumping into it, behold, this is David, I’m a man of full grace you don’t tackle me anyhow and you go out it.
“So be careful when you want to use the death of that young lady, one of my best workers, a nurse, a staff of the Federal University, somebody said they were transported, the second girl is from Benue State, and that girl has worked with me as a governor before she was employed.
“And so when people tackle me, that I’m not talking to the press, it means nothing, but it’s painful to me that that girl passed on.”
On what to do to unravel her death, he said painfully -It’s very difficult to replace her, adding: “We have been begging her parents to allow autopsy happen, they say it’s against their culture.
“But we insisted through our lawyers that autopsy should happen, and we are begging the parents to allow autopsy to happen, and they say no, it’s against their culture, and so we have a stalemate.”
Full of expectation that God will intervene in the matter, the Minister said, it is only God will resolve it, even as he added that he has directed that the corps cannot be removed until the autopsy is carried out.
He expressed disappointment that an unfortunate thing happened, yet it is being misinterpreted by the public for something else.
The Minister said: “People should be careful, because when I kneel down to pray, if you push yourself into this, I say God, may the death of the girl be better than their own death, that’s my prayer for everybody that is using the death of this girl play politics.
“But if we have hands in the killing, it will follow us, because it can be very annoying when people use people’s unfortunate incidents, and they are playing politics, and some people are calling me, and we are this organization, we want to do protest, we want you to see us.
“This is David, I don’t fear battle and I have never lost any. Life is spiritual, people need to be very careful because the matter is ongoing.
“We have reported to the Inspector General of Police (IG) to transfer the case to Abuja, because I’m from Ebonyi State and the former Governor there and so let them transfer it to Abuja.
“I’m begging the family to meet with the IG so that they can convince them because her medical records are Turkish hospitals.
In justification of the records, Umahi, acknowledged that her last visitation to the hospital was on 5th of April, costing N2.2 million, which he bankrolled.
She is ike my daughter that died and so I’m mourning. They presented the girls as if they were “run girls’.
“These people were inside the plane with me and my immediate staff and we flew together.
“We flew together, it’s not as if they even came to Ebonyi differently, we flew together, with them.
“And so, I have asked the police to go to the call-log and then they will see the last discussion, the girl had with the boyfriend at the hour of death, because the moment the boyfriend started calling again, she was also picking the call again, so you can go to the call-log of the boy, go to the call log of the girl.
“Then you hear the conversation, it’s an unfortunate thing that happens, and like I said again, she had in the past received treatment at Turkish hospital, and the medical records are there.
“So, I don’t want to join issues with anybody, but just know that the guest house is far from where I was staying, and as the head of that school, I take responsibility in making sure that the right thing is done, but I suspect no foul play.
“Because it is the girl, her colleague from Benue State that they sleep on the same bed, is it the girl that will remotely kill her because her door was still locked.
“That door was broken, and the tap was still running, and the police, you know, because I think she was going to take a bath, and so when they took her to the mortuary, that’s when the police took the picture in the mortuary.
“They don’t dress up in the mortuary, and took the picture, and they sent out that damaging information.
The police, you know, whoever spoke to Sahara Reporter after the burial, will answer to her family.
“We are not going to let the matter lie like that. I have directed my lawyers to get across to two experts on cyber bullying on this matter. And so we are going to test the law on that and may her Soul Rest in Peace."