Former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has claimed that late former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, died from a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter with a woman at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Amachree made the assertion in his newly released memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, excerpts of which were published by The Nation on Tuesday.
The retired intelligence officer also dismissed long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding Abacha’s death, insisting that the late military ruler died of natural causes.
Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command when Abacha died in June 1998, said the incident occurred at about 4:05 a.m. inside the Presidential Villa.
According to him, the woman who was with Abacha at the time panicked after discovering he had become unresponsive and left the Presidential Villa before security officials became aware of the situation.
He alleged that the woman, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference, had accompanied her elder sister—whom he described as Abacha’s girlfriend—to Aso Rock earlier 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.
Amachree further claimed that the woman realised Abacha had stopped responding during the encounter.
“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 also alleged that the woman quietly left the villa after requesting transport 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.”
According to Amachree, the woman later boarded an early morning flight to Lagos before security agencies could question her.
He said Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was informed of the incident around 5 a.m., after which efforts were made to locate the woman.
Amachree added that he was subsequently instructed by the DSS headquarters to find and interrogate her in Lagos.
Recalling the meeting, he quoted the woman as saying, “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”
“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.
Amachree maintained that the woman’s account contradicted the numerous theories that have circulated over the years about Abacha’s death.
“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 passing has remained the subject of widespread speculation for nearly three decades, with differing accounts continuing to emerge over the years.