Retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) Dennis Amachree has challenged Major Hamza Al‑Mustapha (retd.), former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State General Sani Abacha, to produce CCTV footage if he disputes the account of Abacha’s death contained in Amachree’s memoir.
Amachree made the demand after Al‑Mustapha dismissed the account in DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, in which Amachree wrote that Abacha died at about 4:05 a.m. on June 8, 1998, from what he described as a coitus‑induced cardiac arrest inside the Presidential Villa guesthouse in Abuja.
Speaking by telephone with The Nation, Amachree said Al‑Mustapha should offer verifiable evidence rather than merely calling the account false. “If he says what I wrote is false, let him produce the CCTV footage of what happened,” he said.
Amachree said his version of events was based on his involvement in the investigation following the former military ruler’s sudden death and on his experience in the service. He further defended his credentials, noting that he retired as an Assistant Director — a rank he equated to a Brigadier in the Nigerian Army — while Al‑Mustapha retired as a Major.
Al‑Mustapha has publicly described Amachree’s account as false and urged Nigerians not to accept it. The differing accounts underscore the longstanding controversy surrounding the circumstances of Abacha’s death.
