Former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has dismissed claims made by former Department of State Services (DSS) operative Dennis Amachree regarding the final moments of the late military ruler.
Al-Mustapha described the account as false and urged Nigerians not to believe it.
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 interest in Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer recounted his version of the events surrounding Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998.
Rejecting the claims, Al-Mustapha alleged that the account was fabricated and did not accurately reflect what transpired. He maintained that he had CCTV footage of the events in his possession, which he said contradicted the version presented in the memoir.
Although he did not provide details of the purported footage or indicate whether it would be made public, Al-Mustapha insisted that the claims should be disregarded. He also argued that it was unfair to make allegations against a deceased person who could no longer defend himself.
Gen. Sani Abacha, who seized power in a military coup on November 17, 1993, ruled Nigeria until his sudden death at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on June 8, 1998.
The Federal Government announced at the time that the Head of State died after a sudden illness, but the circumstances surrounding his death have remained one of the most controversial episodes in Nigeria’s political history.
Over the years, conflicting accounts have emerged from former military officers, intelligence operatives, diplomats and political actors, with books, interviews and memoirs offering differing versions of the events leading to Abacha’s death.
Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS who served during the Abacha administration, recently reignited the controversy through his memoir by presenting his account of the late military ruler’s final hours.
The publication has attracted fresh reactions from former officials who served under the Abacha regime, including Al-Mustapha, who has consistently rejected narratives he believes misrepresent the late Head of State or the events of that period.
Al-Mustapha himself remains a controversial figure in Nigeria’s political history. Following Abacha’s death, he was arrested in 1999 and later stood trial over the attempted murder of publisher Alex Ibru and the murder 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 regaining his freedom, Al-Mustapha has repeatedly defended the Abacha administration, maintaining that many allegations against the late military ruler and members of his government were politically motivated or unsupported by evidence.
