Indication by Minister of Works Dave Umahi that Mary Habila’s death was caused by a health challenge has drawn objection from Ebonyi State Ministry of Justice.
Umahi who is in the eye of the storm over Mary Habila’s death at his Ebonyi residence said the deceased had problem with her health, which prompted him to spend N2.2m on her in medical bill at the Turkish Hospital, Abuja.
He also narrated an alleged phone conversation between late Mary and her boyfriend leading up to her death saying, “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?
“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,” the embattled minister had said.
But Ebonyi State Ministry of Justice in a legal advice by its Director of Public Prosecutions, J.U. Chukwu, and addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department, Ebonyi State said MS Habila was healthy before she arrived Umahi’s residence at Uburu on June 26.
The legal advice, dated July 15, 2026, titled: ‘The DPP’s Legal Advice in Re: Case of Sudden Death and Unnatural Death of Mary Habila with case file no. Cr: 578/2026,’ said there was no evidence that the deceased was sick or unstable health-wise prior to her sudden death.
Instead, it declared that, “She was full of life at the time she returned to Uburu in the company of her team.”
The document stated that available evidence showed that Habila was alone in her apartment when she was found lifeless, with no clothe on her body while she had bloodstains around her nose and mouth
“From the foregoing, the question that would readily come to mind is what exactly caused the deceased’s sudden death? This curiosity under the law can only be resolved through a post-mortem examination, so as to provide a clue to the police as to the direction of their investigation,” the advice stated.
