Former Chief Security Officer to 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.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna, Al-Mustapha described Amachree’s account as false and urged Nigerians to disregard it.
His reaction follows renewed public interest in Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer presented his version of the events leading to the death of the late military ruler on June 8, 1998.
Rejecting the claims, Al-Mustapha alleged that the account was fabricated and insisted it did not reflect what actually transpired.
According to him, he possesses CCTV footage of the events surrounding Abacha’s final moments, which he said contradicts the narrative contained in the memoir. However, he did not provide further details or indicate whether the footage would be made public.
Al-Mustapha also argued that it was unfair to make allegations against someone who is no longer alive to defend himself, urging the public to ignore what he described as false claims.
General Sani Abacha, who assumed power following a military coup on November 17, 1993, died suddenly at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998. Although the Federal Government announced that he died after a sudden illness, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained a subject of debate, with several former military officers, intelligence operatives and political figures offering conflicting accounts over the years.
Since his release from detention in 2013, Al-Mustapha has consistently defended the Abacha administration, maintaining that many allegations against the late military ruler and his government were politically motivated or unsupported by evidence.
