Al-Mustapha Dismisses Ex-DSS Officer’s Account of Abacha’s Death

Former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has rejected claims made by former Department of State Services (DSS) operative Dennis Amachree regarding the circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death.

Al-Mustapha described the account as untrue and urged Nigerians not to accept the version of events contained in Amachree’s memoir.

He spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference held at Arewa House in Kaduna on Saturday.

His reaction followed renewed public debate over Amachree’s book, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer presented his account of what happened before the death of the late military ruler on June 8, 1998.

Al-Mustapha insisted that the claims contained in the publication were fabricated and did not reflect what actually happened.

According to him, the former DSS officer’s account was written at the prompting of others. He also claimed to possess CCTV footage of the events surrounding Abacha’s final moments, which he said contradicted the narrative presented in the memoir.

Although he maintained that he had evidence capable of disproving the claims, Al-Mustapha did not provide further details about the footage or indicate whether it would be made public.

He appealed to Nigerians to disregard the allegations, arguing that it was unfair to make claims against someone who had died and could no longer respond.

General Abacha took over power through a military coup on November 17, 1993, and remained Nigeria’s Head of State until his sudden death at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.

At the time, the Federal Government announced that he died after a sudden illness. However, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained one of the most debated issues in Nigeria’s political history.

Over the years, former military officers, intelligence officials, diplomats and political figures have offered different accounts of Abacha’s final hours through books, interviews and public statements, leading to continued controversy.

Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS who served during the Abacha administration, recently revived the debate by publishing his own version of the events in his memoir.

The publication has since drawn reactions from several former officials who served under the military government.

Al-Mustapha, who was one of Abacha’s closest aides, has consistently rejected accounts that he believes distort the record of the late Head of State or misrepresent events during that period.

The former Chief Security Officer remains a controversial figure in Nigeria’s history. Following Abacha’s death, he was arrested in 1999 and later prosecuted over the attempted murder of publisher Alex Ibru and the killing of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola.

He spent more than a decade in detention before the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in 2013.

Since his release, Al-Mustapha has continued to defend the Abacha administration, maintaining that many of the allegations made against the late military ruler and members of his government were politically motivated or lacked factual support.