By Lawrence Agbo
A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has claimed that Nigeria’s former military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, died from a cardiac arrest while having sex at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Amachree disclosed in his newly released memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, where he recounted what he described as the true circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998.
According to the retired intelligence officer, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command at the time, Abacha was with a woman at the Aso Rock Guest House when he suddenly became unresponsive during an intimate encounter around 4:05 a.m.
“At about 4.05 am, as they were getting intimate, the pharmacist realized Abacha had stopped moving. She called out to him, but he was unresponsive and stiff. She checked his pulse; there was none,” Amachree wrote.
He said the woman, identified only as a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference, had accompanied her elder sister—described as Abacha’s girlfriend—to the Presidential Villa earlier that night. The elder sister reportedly returned to her hotel, leaving the younger woman with the late Head of State.
“With her was her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference. The Head of State had just bought his girlfriend a new SUV, and they decided to stop by to say hello to ‘Oga’.
“Abacha was taken with the younger sister, and after a short while, the girlfriend returned to the hotel, leaving the pharmacist alone with the Head of State.
According to Amachree, the woman panicked after discovering Abacha was lifeless, quickly got dressed and requested a soldier on duty to arrange transport back to her hotel, without disclosing what had happened.
“In a state of panic, she quickly dressed and left the guest house, telling the soldier on guard duty that ‘Oga’ had asked for a car to take her back to her hotel,” he wrote.
The former DSS operative said the woman later informed her sister before both rushed her to the Abuja airport, where she boarded an early morning flight to Lagos.
Amachree said security operatives later traced the woman to Lagos after discovering she had left Abuja before they could question her.
Recounting the interrogation, he said the woman immediately denied any wrongdoing.
“The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me,’” Amachree wrote.
He said her account contradicted the long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding Abacha’s death.
“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 stated.
Abacha died on June 8, 1998, while serving as Nigeria’s Head of State. His death came less than a month before the death of Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.
(The Sun)
