By Lizzy Chirkpi
A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has said Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, most likely died of a heart attack, dismissing long-standing claims that the late military ruler was poisoned or died under other suspicious circumstances.
Amachree made the disclosure while speaking on his newly released book, DSS @ 40: My Journey Behind the Shield, saying his conclusion was based on the account of the only eyewitness he personally interrogated following Abacha’s death.
According to the retired intelligence officer, many of the narratives that have circulated over the years were based on speculation rather than firsthand knowledge of the investigation.
“A lot of people have come up with different stories about what happened, but they were not aware of the facts. They were looking at events from the outside and drawing conclusions,” he said.
Amachree revealed that the woman who was with Abacha shortly before his death was brought to him in Lagos for questioning.
He recalled that her first response during the interrogation was a denial of any involvement in the former military ruler’s death.
“The first thing she said was, ‘I did not kill him.’ She was very direct about it,” he said.
The former DSS official said he found no reason to doubt her account after questioning her and reviewing the available information.
“I had to believe her because she had no reason to lie to me. Her account remains the only true eyewitness account of what happened because nobody else was in that room with them,” Amachree said.
He maintained that the evidence gathered during the investigation pointed to a natural cause of death.
“From everything she told me and from what I gathered during the investigation, I strongly believe it was a heart attack. She did not know he was dead while she was with him, but later realised something was wrong,” he stated.
Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death on June 8, 1998, died suddenly while in office, sparking widespread speculation about the circumstances surrounding his death.
Over the years, numerous claims have emerged, including allegations of poisoning, the use of performance-enhancing drugs and other conspiracy theories. However, Amachree argued that none of those claims was supported by the evidence available to investigators at the time.
Abacha’s administration remains one of the most controversial periods in Nigeria’s political history, marked by allegations of widespread human rights abuses, the imprisonment of political opponents and significant corruption. Following his death, successive governments recovered billions of dollars in assets linked to the late military ruler and his associates from foreign jurisdictions, while debate over the circumstances of his death has persisted for nearly three decades.