Truth about Abacha’s death – Ex-DSS operative

A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has given his account of the circumstances surrounding the death of former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, saying the late military ruler died during an intimate encounter at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until […]

A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has given his account of the circumstances surrounding the death of former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, saying the late military ruler died during an intimate encounter at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in June 1998, died while in office. His death has remained the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories for nearly three decades.

Amachree, who was Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command at the time, said Abacha died at about 4:05 a.m. on the day of the incident.

He made the revelations in his new book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, according to The Nation.

He claimed that the woman who was with the late military ruler at the time left the Presidential Villa after discovering he was unresponsive and later boarded an early morning flight to Lagos.

He said: “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 Nogs 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.

“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.

“In a state of panic, she quickly dressed and left the guest house, telling the soldier on guard duty that ‘Oga’ had asked for a car to take her back to her hotel.

“The soldier, unaware of the gravity of the situation, promptly arranged for her transportation. She returned to the Hilton, and after telling her sister what had happened, was quickly driven to the Abuja Airport to catch the 7.am Okada Airline flight to Lagos.

“This is the window Major Al-Mustapha missed. When he was finally informed of Abacha’s instability at 5 am, he asked who had been with the General. He was told about the girlfriend’s younger sister, whom they had just dropped off at the Hilton.

“The State Security Service (SSS) was immediately informed and went to the Hilton to arrest the girlfriend, but the pharmacist they urgently needed was already on her way to Lagos.”

Amachree said the DSS later traced and interrogated the woman in Lagos on the directive of the agency’s headquarters.

According to him, the woman repeatedly insisted she did not kill Abacha.

He added that the lady’s account contradicted the “conspiracy theories and half-truths” — including those on “imported Indian girls and poisoned apples” — that have surrounded Abacha’s death.

“My team located and brought her to my office. I interrogated her myself.

“The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me.’ After her detailed account, I called the Director in Abuja, and she was immediately flown back.

“The lady pharmacist’s account, on whom Abacha apparently had a coitus-induced cardiac arrest, remains the true position, and puts an end to the conspiracy theories and half-truths that have gone viral,” he said.