Abuja:A former senior official of Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has revealed a new account of the death of the former military ruler General Sani Abacha. Amachree claims that Abacha died during an intimate encounter with a woman at the presidential villa in Abuja.
According to Ghana Web, Amachree, who served as a former assistant director of the DSS, shares these details in his book, "DSS at 40 My Journey Behind the Shield." This account challenges previous reports about how the military leader died. It is stated that Abacha suffered a cardiac arrest at around 405 am on June 8, 1998, at a guest house within the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Amachree recounted that he personally interrogated the woman, described as a pharmacist, after she fled the presidential complex. The woman reportedly insisted, "I did not kill him. He died on top of me."
The book also describes how the pharmacist panicked upon realizing that Abacha was unresponsive. She managed to leave the guest house by telling a soldier on guard that Abacha had requested a car for her return to her hotel. Unaware of the incident, the soldier arranged transportation for her. She went back to the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel, where her elder sister, reportedly Abacha's girlfriend, was staying. After informing her sister, they arranged for her to fly to Lagos on a 7 am Okada Airline flight, leaving before security officials could identify her as the last person with Abacha.
Amachree stated that security services initially went to the hotel to arrest the girlfriend but discovered that the pharmacist had already left for Lagos. Following instructions from the DSS national headquarters, Amachree traced the woman to an address in Ogudu, Lagos, and brought her in for questioning. Her first words were reportedly, "I did not kill him; he died on top of me." After obtaining her account, she was flown back to Abuja for further questioning.