Dennis Amachree, former assistant director of the Department of State Services (DSS), has challenged Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer to Sani Abacha, the former head of state, to release CCTV footage of the military ruler’s final hours if he disputes the account contained in his memoir.
Amachree was responding to Al-Mustapha’s dismissal of claims in his recently published book, ‘DSS @ 40: My Journey Behind the Shield’, in which he wrote that Abacha died in June 1998 after suffering a coitus-induced cardiac arrest.
But Al-Mustapha alleged that the former DSS officer was acting “a script” and had been influenced to write the account.
“The boy was asked to write the lies by others. I have all the CCTV footages of what happened in my custody, so what he said are not true,” Al-Mustapha said.
Speaking to The Nation, Amachree said Al-Mustapha should respond with evidence rather than personal attacks.
“If he says he knows what happened that night, let him release the CCTV footage,” he said.
Amachree said his memoir was vetted and approved by the DSS before publication as part of activities marking the agency’s 40th anniversary.
According to him, the security agency invited him from the United States to attend the book launch, which was attended by senior security officials, state directors of the DSS and members of the diplomatic community.
He also dismissed Al-Mustapha’s description of him as “a boy”, arguing that his career progression in the DSS placed him above the retired army major in rank.
“I was seven years old when Nigeria gained independence. I retired as an assistant director, which in army terms is equivalent to a brigadier, while Al-Mustapha retired as a major,” Amachree said.