A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has claimed that former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, died of cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Amachree made the claim in his new book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, where he recounted what he described as the events leading to Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998, while serving as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command.
According to the retired security officer, Abacha was with the younger sister of a woman he described as the late ruler’s girlfriend when he suddenly became unresponsive at about 4:05 a.m.
He alleged that the woman, identified only as a pharmacist, realised Abacha had stopped moving during the encounter, checked for his pulse, and found none.
Panicked, she reportedly left the villa after informing a security guard that the Head of State had requested a vehicle to take her back to her hotel.
Amachree said the woman later travelled from Abuja to Lagos before security operatives realised she had been with Abacha shortly before his death.
He further claimed that the DSS traced her to Lagos, where he personally questioned her before she was flown back to Abuja.
According to him, the woman insisted she had no role in Abacha’s death, allegedly telling investigators: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”
Amachree maintained that her account supported the conclusion that Abacha suffered a coitus-induced cardiac arrest, dismissing longstanding conspiracy theories surrounding the former military ruler’s death, including claims involving foreign women or poisoning.
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in June 1998.
His administration remains one of the country’s most controversial military regimes, with allegations of widespread human rights abuses and political repression.
His death came less than a month before the death in detention of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, widely regarded as the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.