The internal response at the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences, Uburu, has added a fresh layer of suspicion to an already explosive case. Minutes of a management meeting circulated to staff showed the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jesse Uneke, warning that the university’s “integrity and reputation” were “priceless institutional assets” and cautioning against the “unauthorized release of official information” that could misrepresent the institution or damage its image.
The minutes also said staff should obtain information only through the offices legally empowered to speak for the university, while the administration insisted it remained committed to transparency.
That warning is important because it arrived in the middle of a public storm over the death of Mary Habila, whose case has moved far beyond an ordinary workplace tragedy.
The same meeting, according to the circulated highlights, was convened partly to prevent staff from speaking to the media or releasing material that could contradict the university’s position.
In a story already thick with contradictions, any attempt to manage internal speech now looks, to critics, less like prudent communication control and more like damage containment.
At the centre of the controversy is a simple but brutal question: what exactly happened to Mary Habila on 27 June 2026? Public reports say she died at a private residence linked to the Minister of Works, David Umahi, in Uburu, Ebonyi State.
Police have said detectives visited the scene, obtained statements and are preparing a forensic post-mortem, while insisting they are awaiting the family or its representative before proceeding.
The Ebonyi State Police Command has also said a post-mortem is necessary to determine the true cause of death, despite the family’s resistance.
The ministry of justice in Ebonyi has pushed the case firmly into forensic territory. A legal advice signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, J.U. Chukwu, on 15 July 2026, reportedly said Habila was healthy before she arrived in Uburu and that establishing the immediate and remote causes of death required an autopsy.
The advice further stated that she was found alone in her apartment, unclothed, with bloodstains around her nose and mouth, making a post-mortem the logical next step in the investigation.
The family, however, has taken the opposite position. Habila’s father, Wisdom, has repeatedly said he does not want an autopsy and only wants his daughter’s body released for burial.
In one of the most painful lines in the unfolding case, he said: “All that I want is the body of my daughter.”He added: “I need the corpse of my daughter to take her for burial.” He also insisted: “I am not suspecting anybody,” even while rejecting the autopsy that investigators say is essential.
That refusal has turned the corpse itself into the case’s most contested piece of evidence. The family’s lawyer has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, accusing the Ebonyi Command of unlawfully withholding the remains and preventing burial rites.
The legal and emotional deadlock has made the case politically dangerous, especially because the death occurred inside the orbit of a serving federal minister, in an environment where every statement is now being read for what it implies, not just what it says.
The professional status of the deceased has become another fault line. The Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy said Mary Habila’s name “does not appear” on its register of licensed physiotherapists, after what it described as verification through the appropriate regulatory channels.
That directly challenged early claims that she was a physiotherapist seconded to the Ministry of Works. Other reports have since suggested she was a nurse, while sources at the university were also quoted as saying she was a Community Health Extension Worker.
The shifting labels matter because they expose a deeper problem: a public narrative built on uncertain facts is now being defended with institutional certainty.
Umahi himself has pushed back strongly. In public comments reported by major outlets, he denied foul play, said the deceased was “like a daughter” to him, and urged a transparent probe.
He also said Habila complained of nosebleed shortly before she died, and that her boyfriend had advised her to report the bleeding.
That version, while not a confession of wrongdoing, has only widened scrutiny because it raises more questions about the sequence of events, the medical response, and why the case was not fully clarified earlier.
The university’s gag-like internal warning, the police insistence on autopsy, the family’s burial demand, the DPP’s legal advice and the conflicting descriptions of Habila’s role all point to one conclusion: this is no longer merely a death story. It is a test of whether public institutions in Nigeria can handle a sensitive case without defensive messaging, factual drift or institutional self-protection.
Until the autopsy dispute is resolved and the investigation is made more transparent, every new statement will be read as part explanation, part concealment.
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