Abacha died of cardiac arrest on top of a woman – Ex-DSS officer

Former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has offered a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the death of Nigeria's former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, claiming the late ruler suffered a fatal cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter inside the Presidential Villa.

The claims appear in Amachree's newly released memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, excerpts of which were published by The Nation on Tuesday.

Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the DSS Lagos Command when Abacha died in June 1998, wrote that the military leader collapsed at about 4:05 a.m. within the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

According to the retired intelligence officer, the woman who was with Abacha at the time allegedly realized he had become unresponsive during their encounter. He claimed she quietly left the Presidential Villa before security officials became fully aware of what had happened.

The memoir further alleges that the woman, identified only as a pharmacist attending a conference in Abuja, had accompanied her elder sister—whom Amachree described as Abacha's girlfriend—to the Presidential Villa earlier that night.

"At approximately 2.40 am, shortly after Gen. Useni left, Abacha's girlfriend, an Igbo lady (name withheld), arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House from the Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel.

"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."

Amachree wrote that the woman later noticed Abacha had stopped responding.

"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."

The former DSS officer alleged that the woman asked a soldier on duty to arrange transport back to her hotel before leaving Abuja for Lagos later that morning.

He also claimed that Abacha's Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was informed of the incident around 5:00 a.m., prompting efforts to identify and locate the woman.

According to Amachree, he was subsequently directed to trace her to Lagos, where he personally questioned her about the events of that morning.

Recalling the interview, he wrote that the woman immediately declared: "I did not kill him, he died on top of me."

Amachree argued that her account offers an alternative perspective to the numerous conspiracy theories that have surrounded Abacha's sudden death for more than two decades. However, the claims contained in the memoir remain Amachree's personal account and have not been independently verified.