Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Maj. 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.
Al-Mustapha described the account as false and urged Nigerians to disregard it.
He spoke on Saturday while addressing journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna.
His comments followed renewed public attention on Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer recounted his version of the events leading to Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998.
Rejecting the account, Al-Mustapha insisted that it did not reflect what transpired.
“The boy was asked by others 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.
The retired army officer maintained that he possesses evidence capable of disproving the claims contained in the memoir but did not provide further details or indicate whether the footage would be made public.
He also urged Nigerians not to accept allegations against people who are no longer alive to defend themselves.
“Just ignore his lies. It’s bad to say such things about someone who is dead,” Al-Mustapha said.
Abacha, who came to power through a military coup on November 17, 1993, died suddenly at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.
Although the Federal Government announced at the time that he died after a sudden illness, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained one of the most debated issues in Nigeria’s political history.
Over the years, former military officers, intelligence officials, diplomats and political figures have offered conflicting accounts through books and interviews about Abacha’s final hours.
Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS who served during the Abacha administration, recently reignited the debate by presenting his account in The Shadow Warrior.
The publication has since drawn reactions from several former officials who served under the military government.
Al-Mustapha, one of Abacha’s closest aides, has consistently challenged narratives he believes misrepresent the late Head of State or his administration.
Following Abacha’s death, Al-Mustapha 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 his release, Al-Mustapha has continued to defend the Abacha administration, maintaining that many allegations against the late military ruler and members of his government were politically motivated or lacked factual basis.
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