A former senior intelligence officer has dismissed decades of conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Nigeria’s former military ruler General Sani Abacha, claiming he died of a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter.
Dennis Amachree, a former assistant director at Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), made the assertions in his newly published memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield.
Excerpts published by local media on Tuesday reveal Mr Amachree’s first-hand account of the events of June 8, 1998, when the dictator died suddenly in office at the age of 54.
Midnight at the presidential villa
At the time of General Abacha’s death, Mr Amachree was serving as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the DSS command in Lagos.
According to his account, a woman described as a visiting pharmacist was left alone with the head of state at an Aso Rock guest house in Abuja in the early hours of the morning.
“At about 4:05 am, as they were getting intimate, the pharmacist realised Abacha had stopped moving,” Mr Amachree wrote. “She called out to him, but he was unresponsive and stiff. She checked his pulse; there was none.”
Panicked, the woman dressed quickly, requested a vehicle from guards under the pretext that the general had arranged her transport, and returned to her hotel before flying out to Lagos on an early morning flight.
‘He died on top of me’
When General Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was alerted to the situation around 05:00 local time, security forces launched an immediate search for the woman.
Mr Amachree said his team in Lagos was instructed by headquarters to locate and interrogate her upon her arrival.
“My team located and brought her to my office. I interrogated her myself,” the former intelligence chief recalled. “The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me.'”
After giving a detailed statement, she was flown back to Abuja for further questioning.
Putting ‘half-truths’ to rest
General Abacha’s sudden death in 1998 triggered widespread speculation across Nigeria, with rumours ranging from political assassination to poisoned fruit.
However, Mr Amachree insists the medical emergency experienced during the encounter remains the definitive cause of death.
“The lady pharmacist’s account… remains the true position and puts an end to the conspiracy theories and half-truths that have gone viral,” he wrote.
General Abacha came to power in a military coup in November 1993 and ruled Africa’s most populous nation until his death, a period marked by political repression and widespread allegations of state-sponsored corruption.
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