Fresh details have emerged from the Ebonyi State Ministry of Justice regarding the circumstances in which 26-year-old Mary Habila was found dead at the residence of the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, with the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) revealing that she was discovered naked, lying lifeless on the floor, with blood around her nose and mouth.
The disclosure is contained in the DPP’s legal advice dated July 15, 2026, addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Ebonyi State Police Command, and obtained by SaharaReporters.
The legal advice followed the police investigation into Habila’s sudden and unnatural death at the minister’s residence in Uburu, Ebonyi State, on June 27.
In the document, the DPP said a review of the case file raised critical questions that could only be answered through a post-mortem examination.
The DPP stated: “The evidence available shows that the deceased was alone at the time she was found dead in her apartment.”
It further revealed: “She laid lifeless on the floor of her apartment naked with blood stain on her nose and mouth.”
According to the legal advice, investigators also found no indication that Habila had been ill before her death.
“There was no evidence that the deceased was indisposed, sick or unstable health wise prior to her sudden death, as she was full of life at the time she returned to Uburu in company of her team,” the DPP stated.
The DPP said the available evidence left investigators with one fundamental question.
“From the foregoing therefore, the question that would readily come to mind is what exactly caused the deceased sudden death?” the legal advice stated.
It stressed that only a post-mortem examination could provide investigators with the information needed to establish the cause of 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 DPP said.
In its recommendation, the Ministry of Justice advised the police that they could either honour the wishes of Habila’s family or proceed with an autopsy using their statutory powers.
“It is therefore the view of this office that the police invoke their discretionary power to either respect the request of the deceased family or proceed with the post mortem examination,” the DPP concluded.
The legal advice comes amid growing public interest in the circumstances surrounding Habila’s death and conflicting accounts over the next steps in the investigation.
Earlier on Wednesday, SaharaReporters exclusively reported that Habila’s father, Baba Habila, declined to comment while at a morgue in Ebonyi, where he had gone to receive his daughter’s body ahead of her planned burial in Nok, Kaduna State.
The family had indicated its intention to bury her without requesting an autopsy.
However, SaharaReporters subsequently reported that the Ebonyi State Ministry of Justice advised that a post-mortem examination was necessary because the cause of Habila’s death could not be determined from the available evidence.
SaharaReporters learnt that Habila’s body has not been released to her family as investigators continue to consider the next steps in the case.
The case has attracted nationwide attention following conflicting accounts over the events leading to Habila’s death.
SaharaReporters had previously reported that Habila died a day after she and another woman, Anita Baski, arrived at Senator Umahi’s residence from Kaduna State.
Police sources familiar with the investigation told SaharaReporters that the two women arrived at the residence on June 26 and that Habila was found unresponsive the following morning. The case was initially handled by the Ohaozara Divisional Police Headquarters before being transferred to the Ebonyi State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
Following SaharaReporters’ reports, Minister Umahi confirmed that Habila died at his residence. He maintained that she was a physiotherapist seconded from the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences to the Federal Ministry of Works and said he had advised the family to consent to an autopsy to establish the cause of death.
However, police sources involved in the investigation disputed aspects of the minister’s account, telling SaharaReporters that investigators were not convinced Habila and Anita Baski were employees of the university as claimed.
The sources also disclosed that investigators had received information suggesting that members of Habila’s family were allegedly being pressured not to insist on an autopsy.
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Police authorities have yet to announce the cause of Habila’s death, while investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident remain ongoing.
