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Dennis Amachree, a former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), has provided a startling account of the final moments of Nigeria’s former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, claiming he died of cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter.
In his newly released book, *‘DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield’*, Amachree seeks to dispel decades of conspiracy theories surrounding the June 8, 1998, death of the military ruler at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
At the time of the incident, Amachree served as the Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command.
According to the retired operative, the events leading to the General’s death began in the early hours of June 8. Amachree narrates that shortly after Gen. Jeremiah Useni left the Aso Rock Guest House around 2:40 am, Abacha’s girlfriend—an Igbo lady whose name was withheld—arrived from the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel.
She was accompanied by her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in the capital for a professional conference.
“The Head of State had just bought his girlfriend a new SUV, and they decided to stop by to say hello to ‘Oga’,” Amachree wrote. He noted that Abacha became captivated by the younger sister. After a short period, the girlfriend returned to her hotel, leaving the pharmacist alone with the Head of State.
Amachree details the moment the encounter turned fatal. He claims that at approximately 4:05 am, during intimacy, the pharmacist noticed the General had become unresponsive.
“She realized Abacha had stopped moving. She called out to him, but he was unresponsive and stiff. She checked his pulse; there was none,” the book states.
Panicked, the woman reportedly dressed hurriedly and managed to leave the villa by telling the guards that “Oga” had requested a vehicle to take her back to her hotel. Unaware of the situation inside, the security detail facilitated her departure.
The vacuum of information was eventually noticed by the Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, around 5:00 am. Upon learning that a guest had recently departed, the SSS (now DSS) moved to the Hilton to arrest the girlfriend. However, the pharmacist had already fled to the Abuja airport to board a 7:00 am flight to Lagos.
Amachree, who was stationed in Lagos, was tasked with tracking her down.
“My team located and brought her to my office. I interrogated her myself,” Amachree recalled. “The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me.’”
Following her detailed statement, the woman was flown back to Abuja for further questioning.
For decades, Abacha’s death has been the subject of intense speculation, with theories ranging from “poisoned apples” to political assassination. Amachree, however, insists that the medical reality was a “coitus-induced cardiac arrest.”
“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 maintained in the book.
Gen. Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in 1998. His tenure was marked by international isolation and allegations of unprecedented looting and human rights abuses. His death occurred just weeks before the passing of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, election, who died in government custody on July 7, 1998.
