A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has given an account of the circumstances surrounding the death of former Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha, claiming that the 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 various conspiracy theories for almost three decades.
Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos Command of the DSS at the time, said Abacha died at about 4:05 a.m. on the day of the incident.
He made the claims in his new book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, according to The Nation.
In the book, Amachree alleged that a woman who was with Abacha at the time left the Presidential Villa after discovering that he was unresponsive and later travelled to Lagos on an early morning flight.
He wrote that the woman, whose identity was withheld, arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House at about 2:40 a.m. after visiting from the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel. He claimed she had earlier visited with her younger sister, a pharmacist attending a conference in Abuja.
According to Amachree, Abacha’s companion later returned to the hotel, leaving her sister with the former Head of State. He alleged that the pharmacist later noticed that Abacha had stopped responding and found no pulse.
The former DSS officer claimed the woman left the guest house in panic, telling the security personnel on duty that Abacha had asked for a vehicle to take her back to her hotel.
He said she returned to the hotel before being taken to Abuja airport to board an early morning flight to Lagos.
Amachree said security officials were alerted at about 5 a.m. and sought information about who had been with Abacha before his condition deteriorated. He claimed that by the time authorities attempted to locate the woman, she had already departed Abuja.
He added that the DSS later traced and interviewed the woman in Lagos following a directive from its headquarters.
According to Amachree, the woman denied any involvement in Abacha’s death and gave an account of what happened that night.
“The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me’,” he quoted her as saying.
Amachree said the account provided by the woman contradicted longstanding rumours surrounding Abacha’s death, including claims involving poisoning and foreign women.
He maintained that the explanation given by the pharmacist remained the true account of events, describing it as a case of a “coitus-induced cardiac arrest”.
The circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death have continued to attract public interest, with several theories emerging over the years despite official accounts attributing his death to natural causes.
