Al-Mustapha Speaks Out, Dismisses Ex-DSS Officer’s Abacha Death Account

Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, has debunked claims by former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree on the circumstances that led to the death of the late military ruler.

Al-Mustapha said this while addressing journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna on Saturday.

In his memoir, The Shadow Warrior, the retired DSS officer gave his account of the events leading to Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998, which has again attracted public attention.

Recall that Amachree had claimed that a woman described as Abacha’s girlfriend arrived at the Aso Rock Guest House in Abuja in the early hours of the day he died.

The father said she was with her younger sister, a pharmacist, who was in Abuja for a professional conference.

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Amachree said the younger woman was left alone with Abacha after her sister went back to the hotel.

Around 4.05 am, the woman said the former Head of State was unconscious and without a pulse.

The retired DSS official said the woman panicked, left the guest house and told the soldier on duty that Abacha had asked for a vehicle to take her back to the hotel.

Al-Mustapha denied the story, describing it as false and claiming that the memoir was based on instructions from some unnamed persons.

“Others asked the boy to write those lies. “I have all the CCTV footage of what happened in my custody, so what he said is not true,” he said.

He said he had evidence to contradict Amachree’s account but would not say what it was or whether he would make it public.

He called on Nigerians to discount the claims, saying that it was wrong to make allegations against a person that was no more to defend himself.

“Don’t listen to his lies. It’s wrong to say such things of a man who is dead,’ he added.

Abacha assumed power in a military coup on November 17, 1993, and held the position of Head of State of Nigeria until his death at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on June 8, 1998.

The Federal Government said he died after a short illness, but the circumstances of his death have been the subject of public debate, with differing accounts over the years from former military officers, intelligence officials, diplomats and political figures in books, interviews and public statements.

Al-Mustapha was Abacha’s Chief Security Officer throughout his administration and has always defended the late military ruler and contested accounts he believes distort the government or events of that era.

Al-Mustapha had consistently argued that most of the allegations levelled against the Abacha administration were politically motivated and not backed by credible evidence.