Minister of Works, David Umahi, held a press briefing in Abuja, on Thursday, over the raging controversy about the death of a young woman at his residence.

Daily Trust reports that the death of Mary Habila, a nurse at the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State, has sparked controversy.

Saying he suspects no foul play in the incident, Umahi said the late nurse was like a daughter, insisting that any attempt to link him to her death was politics taken too far.

He disclosed that she had been receiving medical treatment for an existing health condition at a Turkish hospital, adding that he personally paid her medical bills for her last treatment in April.

Below is a transcript of what he said at the press briefing:

The lady in question was like a daughter to me. She had stayed with me for three years. She was a staff of the Federal Medical University. She was a nurse and not a physiotherapist and the family and my family are like one family. And she has her medical records in Turkish hospital being paid by us. She 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, you see that 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 later the boyfriend called again she was not responding and even in the morning she told the boyfriend she was going to bath because she locked her door. So even in the morning when they discovered they broke the door and discovered that the tap was still running.

But what baffles me in this country is that everything becomes an opportunity. Now there is a Guest House where she and the second medical person stayed and that is very far from where I stayed. And so it means that God forbid, if somebody dies in the Ministry of Works, the Minister must be accountable for that. Is that what they are saying? Is it that they are saying That somebody cannot die? Have they checked the medical records of the Lady? Do they know you know that this lady was like a daughter to me and that you know everything goes into politics. But what I say to people be careful; life is spiritual. When you want to use the unfortunate death of a young girl to play politics, if we have hands in the killings, it will follow us in our family; but if we don’t have hands and you are jumping into, it behold this is David, I’m a man of full grace. You don’t tackle me anyhow and go out of it. So be careful when you want to use the death of that young lady, one of my best workers; a nurse, a staff of the federal government. Somebody said, ‘oh they were transported. The second girl is from Benue State and that girl has worked with me as a governor, before she was employed… It’s very difficult to replace her.

And you know the parents we have been begging them allow for autopsy to happen; they said it’s against their culture. But the question is that If she were a Muslim will you be insisting that autopsy will happen. But we insisted through our lawyer that autopsy should happen and we are begging the parents to allow autopsy to happen and they say no it’s against their culture and so we have a stalemate. You know and only God will resolve it, because we have directed that the corpse cannot be removed until they have done autopsy.

But it’s very strange why an unfortunate thing that happened you know is being made this is it that we killed a woman that was giving me injection you know that you know was a administering drug to us that lived in even in my residence in Asokoro. So what sort of rubbish is that? But people should be careful because, when I kneel down to pray I say when you push yourself into this, I say God may the death of the girl be better than their own death. That’s my prayer for everybody that is using it to play politics, but if we have hands let it also follow us. Because it can be very annoying when people use you know people’s you know uh unfortunate incident and are playing politics. Some people are calling me we are this organization we want to do protest we want you to see us you know. What is it? This is David you know. I don’t fear battle you know and I’ve never lost any. But life is spiritual; we need to be very very careful. It’s very important.

So the the matter is ongoing; we’ve reported to the IG to transfer the case to Abuja and let them beg the family to do autopsy. I’m begging the family to meet with IG, so that maybe IG can convince them, but there are medical records in Turkish hospital. The last one was on 5th of April and it costed me N2.2 million. The records are there. I paid N2.2 million. So that is it. It’s like a daughter that died. So I’m mourning and I laughed at those who she’s a physiotherapist. They presented the girls as if they were wrong girls. These people were inside the plane with me, my immediate staff. We flew together it’s not as if they even came to Ebonyi differently. We flew together with them.

We were going to Lagos; at least, not the first time. The boyfriend also told us that in Lagos, which was that when we went for this coastal road that she called him and said she was bleeding from the nose and he said no report to your boss. She said the boss will say that she should go back to hospital and that she didn’t want to stress me. So, he said look for hospital around there and go. That’s the confession of the boyfriend.

So, I’ve asked the police to go to the call log you know and then they will see the last discussion the girl had with the boyfriend at the hour of death. Because the moment the boyfriend started calling again then she was not picking the call again. So you can go to the call log of the boy. Go to the call log of the girl and you hear the conversation. It’s an unfortunate thing that happened. Like I said again she’s been receiving treatment at Turkish hospital and the medical records are there.

So I don’t want to join issues with anybody. But just know that the guest house is far from where I was staying and as the head of that guest house, I take responsibility making sure that you know the right thing is done. But I suspect no foul play. I think she was going to bath and so when they took her to the mortuary that’s when the police took the picture in the mortuary. They don’t dress up in the mortuary and took the picture and they send out damaging information. The police or whoever that spoke to Sahara reporter after the burial will answer to our family. We are not going to leave the matter like that. I’ve directed my lawyers to get across to two people on cyberbullying on this matter. So we’re going to test the law on that. Thank you very much; that’s just it. Thank you, may her soul rest in peace. (Daily Trust)

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