A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has alleged that Nigeria’s former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, died after suffering a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter with a woman at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Amachree made the claim in his newly published memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, excerpts of which were published by The Nation on Tuesday.
The retired intelligence officer, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the DSS Lagos Command when Abacha died in June 1998, also rejected the numerous conspiracy theories that have surrounded the late military ruler’s death for decades.
According to him, the incident occurred at about 4:05 a.m. inside the Presidential Villa.
Amachree claimed that the woman with Abacha at the time later fled the villa after discovering he had become unresponsive. He identified her only as a pharmacist who had travelled to Abuja for a conference and accompanied her elder sister, whom he described as Abacha’s girlfriend, to Aso Rock that night.
“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.
The former DSS officer alleged that while the two were together, the woman noticed Abacha had stopped responding.
“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.”
Amachree said the woman allegedly left the Presidential Villa in panic after asking security personnel to provide transportation back to her hotel.
“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.”
He further claimed that the woman boarded an early morning flight to Lagos before security agencies became aware of the incident.
According to Amachree, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was informed of the military ruler’s condition at about 5 a.m. Efforts to locate the woman in Abuja reportedly failed, prompting the DSS headquarters to direct him to track her down in Lagos.
Recalling the interrogation, Amachree said the woman immediately denied any involvement in 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,” he wrote.
The retired intelligence officer maintained that the woman’s account supports his belief that Abacha died from a cardiac arrest triggered during the encounter rather than under the circumstances suggested by various conspiracy theories over the years.
“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.
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death on June 8, 1998. His sudden demise while in office has remained one of the country’s most debated political events, with differing accounts continuing to emerge over the years.