“I did not kill him, he died on top of me,” That was the confession of the lady that was with former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, when he abruptly passed on.
Dennis Amachree, a veteran security operative, said the lady, a chemist, confessed to him while he was interrogating her on the unexplained death of Abacha.
Amachree, who presented his own rendition of last moments of Abacha, said the former military ruler died about 4.According to The Nation, the incident occurred on June 8, 1998, at 5 am at Aso Villa, Abuja, in the company of the lady during an intimate affair.
General Abacha ruled Nigeria as a military head of state from November 1993 until his tragic death in July 1998. Demographics
He was the seventh military ruler. He was 54 years old.
The way in which he died caused many to speculate about what had killed him and the circumstances surrounding his death.
The true position remains the lady chemist’s report on whom Abacha evidently suffered a coitus-induced heart collapse. “It puts an end to the conspiracy theories and half-truths that have gone viral,” he stressed.
Amachree, who was then the Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos State SSS Command, stressed that “any other narrative is an act of deceit and a disservice to our countrymen and women.
He disclosed this in his freshly released 348-page book titled: ‘DSS @40: My experience behind the shield’. The retired Assistant Director of Department of State Services (DSS) stated the lady-pharmacist quickly boarded the next flight to Lagos after seeing Abacha’s death.
In Chapter 17 of the book titled: ‘The months of death: A turning point in Nigerian history,’ Amachree said he interrogated the lady in Ogudu, Lagos, after a call from the Director of Operations at the DSS National Headquarters.
“My team found her and brought her to my office,” he claimed. I personally interrogated her. The first thing she said to me was, ‘I didn’t murder him, he died on top of me. “I gave her detailed account and I called the Director in Abuja and she was flown back immediately.
Abacha died on July 7, 1998, barely a month before the death of the winner of the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola in Abacha’s detention. Executive Branch
Following the protest and commotion that ensued after Military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida annulled Abiola’s election, he stood aside and appointed an unelected civilian, Chief Ernest Shonekan, as interim head of state with General Abacha as defence minister.
Nigerians rejected the deal wholesale and Gen. Abacha seized the opportunity to push out Chief Shonekan, just three months later. Gen. Abacha subsequently became head of state and full blown dictator.
“Abacha’s five and half years rule was a period of extreme authoritarianism and brutal repression,” Amachree said, adding that his dictatorship was widely denounced for extensive human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings.
“During his time the number of political detainees surpassed the total for the whole of the British colonial period, the author said.
A few days before his death the tyrant received agents of the Palestine Liberation Organisation head, Yasser Arafat. He also met Pope John Paul 11 who was in Nigeria to plead for the release of the captives.
Yes, indeed, General Abacha was the last visitor to the Pope.
Amachree admitted the speculation and suffering that has persisted since the death of Abacha, given the contradicting narratives.
There are many written accounts, but few based on verifiable facts.
These include everything from fanciful tales of a dissident soldier’s poisoned apple to more extreme allegations of foreign spy services.
Clarifying the record
The author set aside the claims of six people, whose stories never answered the enigma.
The first is David Orr of The Irish Times. On his speculation the author said, “A report by a journalist quoted an unnamed diplomat who said that Abacha was poisoned by a small group of disgruntled military officers. The story was sensational but disputed by a Nigerian newspaper report quoting postmortem results that ruled out poisoning.” Newspapers
Amachree stated on Susan Rice’s testimony: “The former US National Security Advisor’s account was condescending but it echoed the popular rumour that Abacha died with prostitutes, perhaps on Viagra. “This version is popular but has no tangible evidence and is dismissed by those close to the late Head of State.
He also debunked the narration of Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha, saying: “His account is often regarded as a key source, being Abacha’s Chief Security Officer but it has notable discrepancies. Abacha’s health declined after he shook hands with a security guard of a visiting dignitary, he said. This story exonerates the “poisoned apple” notion, although it is very different from other timelines and accounts.”
Amachree also dismissed the late Gen. Jeremiah Useni’s recommendations, saying: “Useni, a close friend of Abacha, has a different timeline of events contradicting Al-Mustapha’s version of the last hours. He endorsed the official account of dying by natural causes and cited autopsies in other countries.”
The views of a medical officer, Brig-General Oviemo Ovadje, were also dismissed.
“His version gives a different angle, that Abacha’s death was due to long-term health problems worsened by poor medical treatment, which included the use of steroids.”
Femi Fani-Kayode’s speculation was dismissed by the writer. He stated the former Aviation Minister’s social media remarks were a conspiracy theory of a CIA-orchestrated plot involving a poisoned handshake, with the involvement of other previous Nigerian officials.
There may be no evidence for the story, but it is indicative of how much the public distrusts authority and is prepared to think that some outside force is at work.
Amachree claimed the most spectacular of these allegations of imported Indian prostitutes, of a poisoned apple, and of CIA involvement have been widely repeated, muddying the historical record.
Therefore he claimed he chose to make clear the authentic and true fact.
“As a security professional in the thick of it, I feel compelled to set the record straight and give the true narrative for posterity,” the author continued.
The most relevant testimony was that of Al-Mustapha, as he was the officer closest to him. He has continuously sought to protect the reputation of his late boss, blaming his murder on a suspicious handshake by a foreign security official.
Abacha’s health deteriorated after he shook hands with a member of PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s entourage on June 8, he said.
He stated that Abacha was stabilised around 6 pm by a doctor and was receiving visitors until Gen. Useni left at 3.35 pm the next day. Al-Mustapha’s account concluded with him saying he returned home to bed and only heard of Abacha’s instability around 5 a.m.
But Amachree argued that Al-Mustapha’s story contains a vital gap, adding that “he missed the one and half window after Gen. Useni’s departure that provides the key to the mystery.
The retired Assistant DSS Director gave a comprehensive account of Abacha’s last moments in paragraph five of page 250 sub-titled: ‘The final hours.’
“About 2.40a.m., soon after Gen. Useni left, Abacha’s girlfriend, an Igbo lady (name withheld), arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House from the Nicon Hilton Hotel. She was accompanied by her younger sister, a chemist, who was in Abuja for a conference. The Head of State just bought his lady a new SUV and they decided to stop by to say hello to “Oga”.
Abacha was taken with the younger sister. After a little period the girlfriend left to the hotel leaving the chemist alone with the Head of State. The couple were getting amorous when the chemist noticed Abacha had stopped moving at about 4.05 am. She shouted to him, but he did not answer and stood stiff. She felt for a pulse. There was none.
In a panic, she changed quickly and fled the guest house, telling the soldier on guard duty that “Oga” had asked for a car to take her back to her hotel. The soldier, not realising the seriousness of the situation, immediately planned to have her transported. She returned to the Hilton and, after explaining to her sister what had transpired, was soon being driven to the Abuja Airport to board the 7.It was Okada Airline flight to Lagos.
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“This is the window Major Al-Mustapha missed. Finally around 5 am he was told of Abacha’s instability and he asked who had been with the General. He was told about the girlfriend’s little sister, who they had just dropped off at the Hilton. The State Security Service (SSS) was quickly contacted and headed to Hilton to arrest the girlfriend but the chemist they urgently required was already on her way to Lagos.’
In paragraph five of page 251 sub-titled: ‘The interrogation and the truth’ Amachree stated: “In the morning of June 9, 1998 at about 8 am as the Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence of the Lagos State SSS Command I received a call from the Director of Operations of the SSS National Headquarters. He told me about Abacha’s death and asked me to send agents to a location in Ogudu, Lagos, to arrest a young chemist.
“My team found her and brought her to my office. I asked her myself. The first thing she said to me was: ‘I did not murder him, he died on top of me’. “I called the Director in Abuja after she told her story and she was flown back right away.
Amachree remembers that “later that day the news broke and the media, with their “fertile imagination,” began to spin takes of imported Indian girls and poisoned apples.” News
“The confusion over Abacha’s death is a microcosm of a larger problem in Nigeria: a leadership culture steeped in falsehood and a lack of accountability,” he said, alluding to what he viewed as the broader consequences of the falsehood.
The purposeful concealment of truth and the promotion of falsehoods by those who should be held to a higher standard have kept the country in a retrogressive cycle,” he said.
“Power is temporary; there is no permanent state,” Amachree said.
He said: “Abacha, a military dictator who had himself surrounded with a security detail that was seemingly impenetrable, considered himself invincible. But death at last kept its rendezvous with him, and all his concentric bands of protection were broken.
His narrative is a sad reminder of how fleeting power is, and how no amount of security can protect a leader from their eventual fate.
The author raised some problems, why did the Generals, close aides and politicians actively propagated false narratives regarding Abacha’s death? Who fed these bogus articles into the media?
“The truth may be suppressed for a while, but the forces of human curiosity and investigative inquiry will bring it out,” Amachree warned against fabrications.
Before Abacha died he had devised a scheme for personal succession.
He aspired to go from military ruler to civilian president.
He created five political parties, put his men in command of all of them and made all of them to select him as their presidential candidate.
The parties were struggling to do his bidding whilst providing the sense of a shift to democracy.
The late Chief Bola Ige, a former political leader and second republic governor of Oyo State, famously likened the five parties as five fingers of a leprous hand.
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