Mary Habila: Nigerians demand answers over death of Umahi’s personal physiotherapist

Questions are trailing the mysterious death of a physiotherapist, Mary Habila, in the residence of Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Dave Umahi.

Habila, said to be Umahi’s personal physiotherapist, died in mysterious circumstances which has left many Nigerians demanding answers.

A statement released on Saturday by Francis Nweze, the minister’s Senior Special Assistant, confirmed Habila’s death.

According to the statement, Habila and Miss Anita Baski, said to be employees of the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Uburu, Ebonyi State, have been on secondment in the Federal Ministry of Works as physiotherapists for the past three years.

The statement said Umahi called for an autopsy to ascertain the cause of Habila’s death.

The statement said the deceased’s family refused to allow the autopsy.

“Following confirmation of Miss Habila’s passing, the Honourable Minister personally received her parents, conveyed his sincere condolences, and advised that an autopsy be conducted to scientifically establish the exact cause of death.

“At the time, however, the family declined the recommendation.

“It is important to clarify that Miss Mary Habila and Miss Anita Baski are employees of the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Uburu, who had been on secondment to the Federal Ministry of Works as physiotherapists for the past three years until the unfortunate passing of Miss Habila,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, there are allegations that Habila was naked when her dead body was found in Umahi’s residence.

The controversial and mysterious nature of the death is currently raising questions on X.

Speaking on the development in a post on X, a journalist with Secret Reporter, Fejiro Oliver, said Umahi has a lot of questions to answer.

“The Umahi Teaching Hospital that he claimed deployed them to him has no business doing such. Umahi has lots of questions to answer.

“If a girl dies in the house of a poor man, he will be in police custody by now. Umahi should be in one. That’s the only debate he should be having right now and not with Peter Obi,” Oliver said.

He listed some questions that require answers.

“Who killed the girl?

“Who sucked her breasts when it was opened?

“Who stripped her naked?

“Do doctors now carry out physio work naked?”

In the same vein, another X user known as Onu_Slim wrote:

“Nigeria, we need to talk about what happened at Dave Umahi’s residence.”

On his part, the head of Mission, Leadership and Accountability Initiative, Henry Shield, claimed in an X post:

“Let me burst your bubbles. Last week, I was invited to Transcorp by a former presidential aide who knew about this issue and wanted me to push it out.

“He gave me a vivid picture of what happened and even asked me to call the CP of Ebonyi and the Commissioner of Information to verify. I decided to investigate privately, and mehn, Umahi should rot in jail.”

As of the time of filing this report, the Nigeria Police Force is yet to officially comment on the incident.