Former Department of State Services (DSS) Assistant Director Dennis Amachree has claimed that late military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha died after suffering a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter at the Presidential Villa.
The claim is contained in Amachree’s newly released memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, excerpts of which were published by The Nation on Tuesday.
Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command at the time of Abacha’s death in June 1998, said the incident occurred around 4:05 a.m. inside Aso Rock.
According to him, the woman with Abacha, whom he identified as a pharmacist visiting Abuja for a conference, fled the Presidential Villa in panic after discovering the Head of State had become unresponsive.
He alleged that the woman had accompanied her elder sister—said to be Abacha’s girlfriend—to Aso Rock earlier that night before being left alone with the military ruler.
“At approximately 2.40 am, shortly after Gen. Useni left, Abacha’s girlfriend, an Igbo lady (name withheld), arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House from the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel.
“With her was her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference. The Head of State had just bought his girlfriend a new SUV, and they decided to stop by to say hello to ‘Oga’.
“Abacha was taken with the younger sister, and after a short while, the girlfriend returned to the hotel, leaving the pharmacist alone with the Head of State,” he wrote.
Amachree said the woman later realised Abacha had stopped moving.
“At about 4.05 am, as they were getting intimate, the pharmacist realised Abacha had stopped moving. She called out to him, but he was unresponsive and stiff. She checked his pulse; there was none.”
He further claimed the woman requested a vehicle back to her hotel before catching an early morning flight to Lagos.
According to Amachree, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha was informed of Abacha’s condition around 5 a.m., while the DSS later directed him to locate and interrogate the woman in Lagos.
Recalling the interview, Amachree said her first words were: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”
He said her version of events disputes many of the conspiracy theories that have surrounded Abacha’s death over the years.
