Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has said the insinuations that he killed the female nurse, Mary Habila, at his Uburu residence in Ebonyi State were false.
Mr Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State, spoke at a press conference in Abuja. on Thursday
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A video clip of the conference has been circulating on Facebook.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Ms Habila, who was attached to Mr Umahi, was brought in dead to the David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu, Ebonyi State, on 27 June.
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‘Her apartment was far from mine’
Some Nigerians and civil society organisations have called for an investigation into the death of the nurse, with a few others insinuating that the victim might have been killed.
During the press conference, Mr Umahi suggested that he could not have killed Ms Habila because he was not sharing the same apartment with her and her colleague at the time of her death.
“There is a guest house where she and the second medical person stayed, and that is very far from where I stayed.
“But, strangely, an unfortunate thing happened, and speculation is being made that we killed a woman who was giving me an injection, administering drugs to us, and even lived in my residence in Asokoro,” he stated.
The minister clarified that the 26-year-old woman was a nurse, not a physiotherapist, as previously reported.
What she told her boyfriend the night before her death
Mr Umahi stressed that Ms Habila was like a daughter to him and that her death was a personal loss to him because it would be difficult to replace her.
The minister further faulted insinuations that Ms Habila’s death was unnatural, arguing that those peddling false narratives about the incident do not know her medical records.
“The lady in question was like a daughter to me. She had stayed with me for three years.
Is it that they are saying that somebody cannot die? Have they checked the medical records of the lady, he asked, suggesting that she might have died of natural causes.
He narrated that Ms Habila’s boyfriend had confessed that the deceased complained to him on the phone that she was sick hours before her demise.
“She (Habila) spoke to her boyfriend at the hour of her death, complaining that she was bleeding from the nose, and the boyfriend said, ‘No, you have to report to your boss. She said it has stopped.’
“So, the boyfriend 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, and three minutes late, the boyfriend called again, but she was not responding.
“Even in the morning, she told the boyfriend she was going to take a bath because she had locked her door. In the morning, when they discovered (she wasn’t responding), they broke the door and discovered that the tap was still running,” the minister narrated.
“So, I’ve 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 time of her death. But I suspect no foul play.”
An autopsy is compulsory
Mr Umahi reiterated that an autopsy must be conducted on her to establish the actual cause of death.
“We have insisted through our lawyer that the autopsy should happen, and we are begging the parents to allow the autopsy to happen, and they say no,l because it’s against their culture. So we have a stalemate.
“Only God will resolve it, because we have directed that the corpse cannot be removed until they have done the autopsy,” he stated.
READ ALSO: Police to hire pathologist for autopsy on Mary Habila official
The minister stressed that her family would meet with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, over the incident.
“The matter is ongoing; we’ve reported to the IGP to transfer the case to Abuja and let them beg the family to do an autopsy. I’m begging the family to meet with IGP, so that maybe IGP can convince them,” he said.
