A retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has claimed that former military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, died during an intimate encounter with a woman in the early hours of June 8, 1998, dismissing long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding the late ruler’s death.

Amachree made the claim in his newly released 348-page memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, where he recounted his role in the investigation that followed Abacha’s sudden death.

According to the retired intelligence officer, Abacha suffered what he described as a coitus-induced cardiac arrest at about 4:05 a.m. inside the Aso Rock Presidential Villa Guest House in Abuja.

He said the woman, whom he identified only as a pharmacist, was later tracked to Lagos and interrogated by him after the DSS received intelligence that she had fled Abuja shortly after the incident.

“The first thing she said to me was, ‘I did not kill him, he died on top of me,'” Amachree wrote, adding that after obtaining her account, he contacted the DSS Director of Operations in Abuja, who ordered that she be flown back to the Federal Capital Territory.

Amachree, who was Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos State SSS Command at the time, said his account represents the true version of events and should lay to rest years of speculation over Abacha’s death.

He argued that several popular narratives—including claims that the former military ruler was poisoned with an apple, assassinated through a poisoned handshake or killed in a foreign intelligence operation—were unsupported by evidence.

According to the book, Abacha’s girlfriend had arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House in the company of her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference. Amachree alleged that after the girlfriend returned to her hotel, the pharmacist remained alone with the Head of State.

He claimed that while the two were together, the pharmacist realised Abacha had become unresponsive. According to his account, she checked his pulse, found none, informed a soldier on duty that the Head of State had requested transport back to her hotel, and later boarded an early morning flight to Lagos.

Amachree said the DSS subsequently traced her to an address in Ogudu, Lagos, where she was arrested and questioned.

He maintained that the account explains what he described as the “missing window” in the timeline presented by Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha.

Over the years, Al-Mustapha has consistently maintained that Abacha’s health deteriorated after shaking hands with a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s entourage during an official visit, a claim widely interpreted as suggesting poisoning.

Amachree, however, said Al-Mustapha’s account left unexplained the period between the departure of senior military officers from the Villa and the discovery of Abacha’s condition.

The retired DSS officer also challenged other accounts advanced over the years by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Gen. Jeremiah Useni; military physician Brig.-Gen. Oviemo Ovadje; former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode; former United States National Security Adviser Susan Rice; and reports published by foreign media, arguing that none was based on verifiable evidence.

He said some accounts attributed Abacha’s death to long-standing health complications, while others alleged foreign involvement or the use of poison, but insisted that the testimony he obtained from the pharmacist remained the most accurate explanation.

According to Amachree, the controversy surrounding Abacha’s death reflected a broader culture of misinformation and lack of accountability in Nigeria’s leadership history.
He argued that deliberate suppression of facts had fuelled conspiracy theories for decades and stressed that historical records should be based on verifiable evidence rather than speculation.

Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993, until his death on June 8, 1998, after taking power from the Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.

His administration was marked by widespread allegations of human rights abuses, detention of political opponents and suppression of pro-democracy movements.
His death came barely a month before the death in custody of the presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O.) Abiola, on July 7, 1998.

Before his death, Abacha was widely believed to have been preparing to transform from military ruler to civilian president under a transition programme in which all five registered political parties endorsed him as their sole presidential candidate.

The development prompted the late former Governor of Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige, to famously describe the parties as “the five fingers of a leprous hand.”

Amachree concluded that Abacha’s death demonstrated that political power is temporary, warning that no amount of security or authority can shield any leader from mortality.