UBURU, Nigeria — Anita Baaki, a physiotherapist and colleague of Mary Habila, has filed a sworn affidavit describing how the nurse was found unconscious inside a locked staff chalet room at the Ebonyi State country home of Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, before being pronounced dead at a hospital.
Habila, a nurse attached to the David Umahi Federal University of Medical Sciences and seconded to the Federal Ministry of Works, had travelled from Abuja to Ebonyi State with Baaki and other ministry officials for an official assignment connected with the minister.
Baaki’s account was contained in an affidavit filed before the Ebonyi State High Court on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, as the police continued to investigate the circumstances of Habila’s death.
According to the affidavit, the officials arrived in Ebonyi on June 24 and were lodged in separate adjoining rooms at a staff chalet within Umahi’s country home in Uburu, in the Ohaozara Local Government Area.
Baaki said the chalet accommodated Federal Ministry of Works employees and associates. She emphasised that it was not Umahi’s personal residence.
The affidavit offered an account of Habila’s final known movements and the events that followed when she did not leave her room the next morning.
Baaki said she last saw Habila alive on the evening of June 26, after Habila returned from having her hair done.
Habila visited Baaki’s room to show her the new hairstyle, and the two women talked and joked before Habila left to retire for the night, according to the statement.
“Mary told me she was tired and wanted to take a shower before sleeping. That was the last time I saw her alive,” Baaki stated in the affidavit.
Baaki said she became concerned the following morning when Habila did not emerge from her room as expected.
She called Habila’s telephone several times but received no answer, the affidavit said. Baaki then went to the room and knocked on the door, but there was no response.
After discovering that the door was locked from inside, Baaki alerted a member of the domestic staff and asked that the premises be searched to determine whether Habila had left the room and gone elsewhere.
When the search failed to locate her, other staff members were notified and the locked door was forced open.
Baaki said Habila was discovered lying unconscious on the floor close to the entrance of the room.
She was taken immediately to the David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, where doctors confirmed that she was dead on arrival.
Baaki said she submitted the affidavit voluntarily and without coercion to assist investigators working to establish the circumstances surrounding Habila’s death.
The police investigation remains underway.
Lawyers representing Umahi have requested a comprehensive forensic autopsy to determine the precise cause of Habila’s death before her remains are released for burial.
