Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), the former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, has debunked claims by the former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, on circumstances surrounding the late military ruler’s death.
Al-Mustapha spoke on Saturday when he spoke to journalists on the side-lines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna.
He was responding to the renewed interest that the public is showing to Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer narrated the story of the events leading to the death of Abacha on June 8, 1998.
Amachree had told the court that a woman said to be Abacha’s girlfriend came to the Aso Rock Guest House, Abuja in the early hours of the day he died.
He said she was with her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a professional conference.
After her sister returned to the hotel, Amachree said, the younger woman was alone with Abacha.
He said that at about 4.05 am, the woman discovered that the former Head of State was unresponsive and could not detect a pulse.
The retired DSS official said the woman panicked and left the guesthouse, telling the soldier on duty that Abacha had asked for a car to take her back to the hotel.
Al-Mustapha denied the account and said it was false, alleging the memoir was written on the instructions of some unnamed persons.
“The boy was forced to write those lies by others. I have all the CCTV footage of what happened in my custody so what he said is not true
Al-Mustapha said he had evidence to contradict Amachree’s account but did not elaborate further or say whether he would make the evidence public.
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He urged Nigerians to ignore the allegations and said it was wrong to make claims against someone who was no longer alive to defend himself.
“Disregard his lies. “It’s a bad thing to say such things about a dead man,” he added.
Abacha seized power in a military coup on November 17, 1993 and ruled as Nigeria’s Head of State until his death at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on June 8, 1998.
The circumstances of his death have been the subject of public debate over the years, with former military officers, intelligence personnel, diplomats and political figures giving different accounts in books, interviews and public statements, although the Federal Government announced that he died after a brief illness.
Al-Mustapha who was Abacha’s Chief Security Officer during his administration has always defended the late military ruler and challenged accounts he believes are distorting the government or events of that period.
Al-Mustapha has always maintained that most of the allegations against the Abacha administration were politically motivated and not supported by any credible evidence.