Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has dismissed claims by a former Department of State Services operative, Dennis Amachree, on the circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death, describing the account as false.
Al-Mustapha spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House, Kaduna, on Saturday.
Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS, recently reignited controversy over Abacha’s death through his memoir, _The Shadow Warrior_.
Reacting to the account, Al-Mustapha said: “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 added that the alleged account should be ignored.
“Just ignore his lies. It’s bad to say such things about someone who is dead,” he said.
Abacha died suddenly at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on June 8, 1998, after ruling Nigeria from 1993.
Although the Federal Government announced that he died after a sudden illness, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained controversial, with conflicting accounts emerging over the years.