A retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has offered his account of the circumstances surrounding the death of former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, claiming the late military ruler died from a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter at presidential guest house in Abuja.
In his newly released book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, Amachree said Abacha died around 4:05 a.m. on June 8, 1998, while with a female pharmacist who had accompanied her older sister—described as Abacha’s girlfriend—to Aso Rock.
According to Amachree, the woman panicked after discovering the military ruler was unresponsive and quietly left the villa, returning to her hotel before catching an early morning flight to Lagos.
The retired DSS officer said security operatives later traced and interrogated the pharmacist, who reportedly insisted: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”
Amachree maintained that the woman’s account supports his conclusion that Abacha suffered a coitus-induced cardiac arrest, dismissing long-standing conspiracy theories linking the former ruler’s death to poisoning or other foul play.
Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in June 1998, remains one of the country’s most controversial leaders, with his regime widely associated with human rights abuses and political repression.