The father of Mary Habila, the 26-year-old nurse who died at the minister of works’ residence in Uburu, Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has explained why his family wants her body released for burial without an autopsy, stating that a prolonged delay over a child’s death is unbearable.
The father, Habila Wisdom, explained the situation in an interview broadcast on X by Trust TV News on Friday.
“We don’t keep the death of a little child for so long, just like this. So that is why I am here to say once and for all, I need the corpse of my daughter to take her for burial. That is what I am standing on,” he said.
He stated that the family’s rejection of a postmortem was tied to that same urgency to bury her, rather than any suspicion surrounding the circumstances of her death. “That is why I said I don’t want the autopsy. That is why I am demanding the corpse of my daughter to go and bury her now,” he said.
Speaking on whether the family suspected foul play, given allegations that Habila might have been assaulted at the minister’s residence, the father said he had no reason to point at anyone, describing her relationship with her workplace and the minister’s household as warm.
“Very cordial relationship, both in her working place, in my home, and everywhere,” he said. “I am not suspecting anybody because death can occur. Even as we are standing here, one can fall here now and die. So we are not suspecting anybody. It has happened, it has happened.”
Habila was said to have died on June 27 in a room within Umahi’s compound in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, where she and other members of the minister’s medical team had traveled for official purposes.
According to the Ebonyi State Police Command, hospital authorities at the David Umahi Federal Teaching Hospital in Uburu verified she was brought in dead, and the case was referred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for a thorough investigation.
Chronicle NG reports that despite the father’s position, the police have insisted that an autopsy is necessary to establish the true cause of death, a demand the family has resisted by approaching the Ebonyi State High Court to seek the withdrawal of the police investigation.
Umahi, who broke his silence on Thursday, has also stated that no foul play occurred, characterizing Habila as “like a daughter” who had worked with him for about three years and whose medical costs he had previously covered.
