…says ex-DSS director acting on a script

Former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has dismissed claims contained in a recent memoir by a former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) alleging that the late military ruler died during an intimate encounter with a woman.

Speaking in an interview in Kaduna on Saturday, Al-Mustapha described the account as false and questioned the credibility of the author, insisting that the former DSS official was not present at the Presidential Villa when Abacha died.

“In the first place, when Abacha died, the DSS director was not in Abuja. He was not in the Villa. How can he write mere narration and expect us to believe it?” he said.

According to Al-Mustapha, everyone who had access to the Presidential Villa at the time was properly documented.

“Everybody who gained access to the Villa is well documented. I have the footage of the last moments of Abacha. I really don’t know who Abacha has offended that people are still interested in rubbishing his name,” he stated.

He urged those making such claims to remember the transient nature of life.

“Whoever he is should know that the world is not permanent. Everyone will leave the world one day. Let him continue with his antics,” he added.

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Al-Mustapha further alleged that the author was acting on behalf of unnamed interests, saying he would respond to the allegations at an appropriate time.

“But I want to assure you that the author of the book is acting out a script. He is not acting alone. At the appropriate time, I will respond to these lies. You don’t tell your enemies your plans,” he said.

The comments followed claims made by retired Assistant Director of the DSS, Dennis Amachree, in his newly released 348-page memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield.

In the book, Amachree claimed that General Abacha died in the early hours of June 8, 1998, after suffering what he described as a coitus-induced cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter with a woman inside the Presidential Villa Guest House, Abuja.

According to the former intelligence officer, the incident occurred at about 4:05 a.m., and the woman, whom he identified only as a pharmacist, later fled to Lagos.

Amachree stated that she was subsequently tracked and interrogated by the DSS after intelligence reports indicated she had left Abuja shortly after the former Head of State’s death.

The claims have reignited public debate over the circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death, which has remained the subject of speculation for more than two decades.