From Victor Osula, Abuja
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, on Thursday addressed the press the death of Miss Mary Habila in his home, describing her “like a daughter,” and her parents, “a family friend,”
According to Umahi, the deceased, had a medical condition that made him spend N2m at a Turkish hospital in Nigeria, recently, adding that she complained of bleeding from her nose during a phone conversation with her boyfriend shortly before she was found dead.
“She has her medical records in Turkish Hospital, being paid by us. The last one was on the 5th of April, and it cost me N2.2 million. The records are there. I paid N2.2 million,” he said, adding that, “My lawyers have spoken on my behalf. But one piece of information I want to correct is that the lady in question was like a daughter to me. She had stayed with me for three years. She was a staff member of the Federal Medical University. She was a nurse and not a physiotherapist. And her family and my family are like one family.”
The Minister also gave an account of hie Habila died.
He said, “She spoke to her boyfriend at the hour of her death and complained that she was bleeding from the nose. The boyfriend said, ‘No, you have to report it.’ She said it had stopped. The boyfriend then said, ‘Listen, I will not continue this conversation since you are bleeding. It will increase the bleeding.’
“She told the boyfriend, ‘Don’t cut the call.’ The boyfriend cut the call. Three minutes later, the boyfriend called again. She was not responding. Even in the morning, she told her boyfriend she was going to bathe because she had locked her door. When they discovered something was wrong, they broke down the door and discovered her dead. The tap was still running.”
Umahi further disclosed that the guest house where the deceased died was located far from his personal residence, meaning that he was unaware of what may have led to her death.
“What baffles me in this country is that everything becomes an opportunity. There is a guest house where she and other medical personnel stayed, and that is very far from where I stay. Does it mean that because somebody dies in the Ministry of Works, the minister must be accountable for that?” he asked and warned,
“People should be careful when they want to use the unfortunate death of a young girl to play politics. If we have a hand in the killing, it will follow our families and us. But if we don’t have a hand in it and you are jumping into it, be careful. Life is spiritual,” he said, adding that, “it is very painful to me that the girl passed on. It is very difficult to replace her. She was one of my best workers. We have been begging the parents to allow an autopsy to happen. They said it is against their culture. But we insisted through our lawyer that an autopsy should happen. I have directed that the corpse cannot be removed until an autopsy.”
He said he has reported to the Inspector-General of Police to transfer the case to Abuja.
“Let them beg the family to do an autopsy. I am also begging the family to meet with the Inspector-General so that he can convince them,” he said.
He further disclosed that Habila had a history of bleeding from the nose, quoting her boyfriend, “The boyfriend also told us that when we were in Lagos, she called him and said she was bleeding from the nose. He advised her to report to me so I could send her back to the hospital, but she didn’t want to stress me. He then told her to find a hospital around and seek treatment.”
He urged police to look up the telephone records between the late Habila and her boyfriend.
“They should go to the call log of the boy and the call log of the girl, and they will hear the last conversation the girl had with the boyfriend at the hour of her death,” he said, absolving himself of any foul play.
“I suspect no foul play because the other lady who stayed with her was sleeping in the same bed. Her room was still locked, and the door had to be broken before they discovered the body. The tap was still running because I think she was going to bathe,” he said. He blamed the police for taking her pictures of her corpse at the morgue and circulating them, saying that, “When they took her to the mortuary, that was where the police took the picture. They did not dress her up in the mortuary before taking the picture and sending out damaging information.”
Umahi said he would pursue legal action against media outfit found to be involved in what he called “spreading false information and cyberbullying the deceased.”
“I have directed my lawyers to get across to those involved in cyberbullying this matter. We are going to test the law on that,” he said.
Meanwhile, the physiotherapy organization of Nigeria had denied any knowledge of Habila’s membership, saying that they found no such name in their register.
