A former assistant director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has revealed details of the circumstances surrounding the death of former military ruler Sani Abacha, including the account allegedly given by a woman who was with him in his final moments.
Amachree said the woman told investigators: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me,” after Abacha died at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in 1998.
The revelation was contained in Amachree’s new book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield. At the time of Abacha’s death, Amachree was the assistant director of operations and intelligence at the Lagos command of the DSS.
Abacha, who governed Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in June 1998, died in office at the age of 54. His death had generated several theories and speculation, including claims of poisoning and assassination.
According to excerpts from Amachree’s book, Abacha died around 4:05am at the Aso Rock Guest House while in the company of a pharmacist who was the younger sister of a woman believed to be his girlfriend.
Amachree said the two women visited Abacha at the villa after the former head of state had reportedly purchased a new SUV for his girlfriend. He said the girlfriend later returned to her hotel, leaving her younger sister with Abacha.
The former DSS officer said the woman later realised that Abacha had stopped responding during an intimate moment.
“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 wrote.
Amachree said the woman, who was reportedly frightened by the situation, quickly dressed and left the guest house after telling a security officer that Abacha had asked for a vehicle to take her back to her hotel.
He said she returned to the hotel, informed her sister about what had happened, and was taken to the airport, where she boarded an early morning flight to Lagos.
According to Amachree, security officials later discovered that the woman was a key witness to what happened but could not immediately reach her.
He said the DSS eventually traced her to Ogudu, Lagos, where he personally questioned her after receiving instructions from the agency’s headquarters.
“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,’” Amachree said.
The retired DSS officer said the woman’s explanation supported the position that Abacha died from a cardiac arrest during intercourse and challenged other accounts that had circulated over the years.
“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’s death came weeks before that of Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election. Abiola was in detention during Abacha’s administration after being accused of treason and insurrection.
