Former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has claimed that Nigeria’s former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, d!ed after suffering a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter at the Presidential Villa
Amachree made the revelation 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 Lagos DSS Command when Abacha d!ed in June 1998, said the late military ruler collapsed at about 4:05 a.m. inside Aso Rock.
According to Amachree, the woman who was with Abacha at the time became frightened after discovering he was no longer responding and quietly left the Presidential Villa before security personnel became aware of the incident.
He alleged that the woman, a pharmacist who was reportedly in Abuja for a conference, had accompanied her elder sister—whom he described as Abacha’s girlfriend—to the Presidential Villa 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 during the encounter, the woman noticed Abacha had suddenly become motionless.
“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 alleged that the woman hurriedly left after asking a soldier on duty to arrange transportation back to her hotel before later flying to Lagos early that morning.
According to Amachree, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was informed of the situation around 5 a.m., after which efforts were made to locate the woman.
The retired DSS officer said he was later instructed to track her down in Lagos and personally questioned her.
Recalling the interrogation, Amachree said the woman immediately told him: “I did not k!ll him, he died on top of me.”
He maintained that her account challenged many of the conspiracy theories that have surrounded Abacha’s de.ath for decades.
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Is this not too much for him to say