Former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree, has offered a new account of the death of late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, claiming the former dictator suffered a fatal cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter with a woman at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in June 1998.
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. In the book, the retired intelligence officer dismisses the various conspiracy theories that have trailed Abacha’s death for nearly three decades.
Amachree, who was Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the DSS Lagos Command at the time, said Abacha died at about 4:05 a.m., and that the woman with him fled the Villa in panic once she realised he was no longer responsive, before security officials became aware of what had happened.
According to his account, the woman was a pharmacist attending a conference in Abuja who had accompanied her older sister — said to be Abacha’s girlfriend — to the Villa that night. He wrote that the sister had recently been given a new SUV by Abacha, and the pair had stopped by to greet him. Abacha reportedly took an interest in the younger sister, and after a while the girlfriend left for her hotel, leaving the pharmacist alone with him.
Amachree wrote that the pharmacist realised something was wrong while the two were being intimate, when Abacha suddenly stopped responding. She checked for a pulse and found none. In panic, she got dressed and told the soldier on guard that “Oga” had asked for a car to take her to her hotel, then left the Villa and caught an early flight to Lagos before anyone could question her.
Amachree said that when Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was told of the situation around 5 a.m., attempts to locate the woman were unsuccessful, as she had already left Abuja. He said he was subsequently instructed by DSS headquarters to track her down and question her in Lagos.
Recounting the interrogation, Amachree quoted her as telling him: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.” He said that after taking her full account, he reported to his director in Abuja, and she was flown back to the capital. Amachree maintains that this version of events settles the long-running speculation about the manner of Abacha’s death, describing it as one brought on by a coitus-induced cardiac arrest.
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in office on June 8, 1998.
