Minister David Umahi, Miss Mary Habila and some missing links

THE story of Miss Mary Habila, the nurse found dead in the country home of the Minister of Works, David Umahi, in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, will not simply fade away. The reasons are clear. Several parts of the narrative offered by those who should know do not add up, and the more details that emerge, the more questions arise. Public interest stems not only from the involvement of a prominent political figure but, more importantly, from the irreversible loss of a human life. Mary was a promising young Nigerian professional. Her family expected her to grow into a mother and a nurse who could save lives and contribute meaningfully to medical practice. Those dreams ended on 27 June when she was discovered dead in Umahi’s country home.

Reports indicate that the Divisional Police Officer of Ohaozara Division received a distress call about a medical emergency involving the 26-year-old nurse. Doctors at the David Umahi Federal Teaching Hospital, Uburu, confirmed that she was brought in dead on 27 June. Yet the death only became public on 11 July, when it was first reported in the media.

For me, the surname Habila carried a personal weight of grief. I had to check Mary’s state of origin to know if she had any link with my good friend from Bauchi State, Hon. Iliya Habila, a graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Maiduguri, with whom I became instant friends at the NYSC Orientation Camp in 1994. Well, Mary was from Kaduna, but that did not diminish the grief. Her Habila surname brought back the denial I’ve been living with since December last year, when the news of the demise of my friend of 31 years, Iliya, hit me like a thunderbolt. We became instant friends at the Argungu Orientation Camp in Kebbi State, where we ran the camp’s OBS together with Yinka Oyebode and others. Iliya was a good man—amiable, hardworking, a devoted family man whose love for Catholicism never wavered. He died two weeks after his brother, a Reverend Father. Hearing of another Habila linked to sudden death felt like an added burden on a family that is already struggling to cope with unexplainable tragedies.

Mary’s death remains a painful one, especially looking at the circumstances and the untidy narratives we are being treated to in the aftermath. Whatever picture has been painted by eyewitnesses and officials, the situation remains confounding. The death occurred on 27 June and was made public only on 11 July. That’s a time lag of two weeks. Equally curious is the reliance on affidavits by key figures: Mary’s father, Tanko Habila Wisdom, and her friend and colleague, Anita Baaki, a physiotherapist who was also on the entourage of the minister, and the person who was said to have seen her last, the night before her demise. Both Tanko and Baaki released affidavits weeks after Mary’s death. Baaki worked with the minister alongside Mary. Recall that Miss Habila had been on secondment to the Federal Ministry of Works from the David Umahi University of Medical Sciences and had travelled with Baaki, the minister and other staff to Umahi’s country home on 24 June.

According to Baaki’s affidavit, she last saw Mary on the night before her death. When Mary could not be found the following day, the door of her chalet was forced open. She was found lying unconscious and was taken immediately to hospital, where she was confirmed dead on arrival. One curious thing I also found in the narrative is the emphasis being placed on the location of the guest chalet in which Mary and her colleagues were housed. Baaki’s affidavit made it look as if it was a different house. But that’s not true. The way top politicians build their houses in the South-East is to surround the main house with chalets, where guests and workers are housed. It is the same compound, enclosed within the same fence. She can submit that Mary did not die inside Umahi’s bedroom; that can be accepted, but it would be wrong to create an impression that she was housed in a different location entirely. Mary’s father, in his affidavit dated 13 July 2026, stated that he was not interested in investigating the cause of his daughter’s death and requested that the body be released for burial. He further indicated that he would not be available for any police invitation, asserting that the affidavit reflected “the sincere wishes of my family and me”.

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Affidavits are legal instruments, yet their contents cannot prevent ordinary citizens from raising legitimate questions. Mr Habila’s request should be set aside. While he is the father of the deceased, the law does not grant him the power to determine the course of investigation into her death. Nigerian law takes precedence over family preference where suspicions exist that require clarification. In Mary’s case, too many elements fail to add up.

The recourse to affidavits itself raises questions. The father’s statement might be excused as the reaction of a grieving parent. Baaki’s affidavit is more problematic. The delay in public disclosure is also troubling. Why did the Ebonyi State Police not announce the death promptly so that events could follow a normal, transparent sequence? Baaki should first have given her account to the media, ideally at a press briefing convened by the police. Other members of the Umahi household with relevant knowledge could have been interviewed. Only afterwards might affidavits have been filed as part of the formal procedure. Attempting to manage the matter through partial legal steps has only fuelled public suspicion.

Transparency must not only be applied; it must be seen to be applied by both the Umahi family and the police. A medical emergency should have been declared as soon as Mary could not be reached. Before the door was forced open, medical staff attached to the minister ought to have been present. Where is the account of how the door was broken? I suspect that the minister also goes about with a press crew, whose camera was used to record the process leading to the breaking of the door and her evacuation. In what position was she found—behind the door, in the bathroom, or elsewhere? One report claimed she had left the tap running because she intended to bathe. If so, why was she found behind the door? Where were the other medical personnel attached to the minister, and what are their accounts? Are we to believe that only a nurse and a physiotherapist form the medical team around a minister? A single-page affidavit and a brief interview by the minister in Abuja are insufficient to answer these hanging questions. Minister Umahi has said he is mourning because the young woman was like a daughter to him. Well, we cannot contest that position, but he has a duty to answer the questions the law requires of him. If his aides mishandled the matter, investigations should establish that fact. If there is nothing irregular, the public deserves to know. The nearly two-week gap before the story reached the media has itself cast a shadow. Who decided not to inform the public, and for what purpose?

Should the police argue that early media involvement would have jeopardised investigations, that argument is unconvincing. An incident involving the loss of life has occurred. The proper course is to state that fact and confirm that details are being investigated. The minister and members of his household would then be expected to cooperate fully.

Let me share with the police what would look like international best practice in this type of situation, which we experienced on a delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2007. I was on that delegation led by the then Senate President, David Mark, and some other members of the National Assembly. A member of our media team, Phil Sende of the Africa Independent Television (AIT), died suddenly a day before our departure. Early that morning, she was on the telephone with Sam Akpe in Nigeria when she began coughing heavily. Sam had to advise her to drink water, and he cut the call. Moments after, he made 20 return calls, and none was picked up. So, he had to reach the Media Adviser to Senator Mark, Kola Ologbondiyan, to alert us to go and check on Sende. Meanwhile, those of us in the same hotel were already tired of waiting for her to come out, and we had asked the front desk to help call the room. No one picked up either. Kola’s call came at the same time Paul Mumeh, media aide to Senator Mark, and a staff member of the hotel were heading to the room to see what was afoot. Behold, they knocked and knocked without answer, and when the official opened the door with the security key, Sende was found almost falling off the bed, practically lifeless. Her hand was stretched, apparently reaching out for the water bottle on the stool near her bed; cardiac arrest had struck! A medical emergency was triggered around the hotel; all the life-saving equipment deployed to save Sende couldn’t perform the magic; we lost her. Immediately, the plain-clothed men, whom we usually saw milling around the hotel premises, started identifying themselves as either policemen or intelligence officers, and all of us on the delegation had to face questioning.

The Swiss authorities conducted the necessary procedures, including an autopsy, with speed and clarity. The cause of death was established, and speculation was unnecessary. Painful as it was, the young woman who had left Nigeria full of life returned with us in a body bag. Yet her family, colleagues at the National Assembly, her employers at AIT and members of the Abuja NUJ celebrated her life of service without any lingering doubt. That level of transparency is what the police, the Umahi family and the Nigerian system owe in the case of Miss Mary Habila.