Ex-DSS Operative Reveals Details of Abacha's Death

Dennis Amachree, a former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), has revealed in his memoir, "DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield," that Gen. Sani Abacha died from a cardiac arrest during an intimate encounter with a woman at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.

Amachree, who was serving as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command at the time, stated that the incident occurred around 4:05 a.m. He described the woman, a pharmacist attending a conference in Abuja, as having panicked upon realizing Abacha was unresponsive and left the villa before security officials were alerted.

The woman had accompanied her elder sister, who was Abacha's girlfriend, to Aso Rock earlier that night. After the incident, she requested transport back to her hotel and left Abuja on an early morning flight before being questioned by security agencies.

Amachree recounted that during interrogation, the woman insisted, "I did not kill him, he died on top of me.".