Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dan Etete, has questioned claims that former military Head of State, Sani Abacha, died during a sexual encounter, describing the account as unsupported by evidence.
Mr Etete, who served in the Abacha regime and said he was a close friend of the late military ruler, was reacting to claims by a former State Security Service (SSS) officer, Dennis Amachree, about Mr Abacha’s final hours.
Mr Amachree made the claims in his memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, excerpts of which were published in July.
He said Mr Abacha suffered a coitus-induced cardiac arrest at about 4:05 a.m. on 8 June 1998 at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
But Mr Etete, in a statement titled, “Twenty-Eight Years On, Still No Evidence,” said Mr Amachree had provided nothing to substantiate the account.
He questioned the identity of the woman, her nationality and whether she had ever confirmed the story attributed to her.
He also asked for the post-mortem report and any medical findings establishing how Abacha died.
Mr Etete questioned the alleged interrogation of the woman, asking where the record was, who conducted it and whether it was signed.
He also asked whether flight records, hotel registers or duty logs existed to support the timeline given by Mr Amachree.
“He tells us the time to the minute. He tells us the room. He tells us what was said. Twenty-eight years on, from memory, with nothing on paper behind any of it,” Mr Etete stated.
According to him, the account was never raised during the years following Mr Abacha’s death, when various inquiries and discussions were held about the circumstances surrounding it.
“In twenty-eight years, through every inquiry and every commission, through all the years when the people close to that night were still alive and still talking, this account was never once raised,” he noted.
Mr Etete also questioned why the woman was allowed to leave Nigeria if she was considered relevant to the circumstances surrounding Mr Abacha’s death.
Mr Etete stated that he was not speaking as Mr Abacha’s lawyer or spokesman but as someone who served in his government and knew him personally.
“I do not pretend the record of those years is beyond argument. It is not, and it will be argued over long after all of us are gone. But a man’s death is not entertainment, and a country’s history is not built on the unsupported memory of one man.
“I cannot tell you what is in Mr Amachree’s mind. I can tell you what is in his hands: nothing. No post-mortem. No file. No signature. No woman.
“He did not provide any evidence because they do not exist. Now, for clarity, please address the following as well: What are the so-called woman’s name and her nationality? Why did you allow her to leave the country without filing a serious criminal investigation against her? Who ordered her release and subsequent departure from Nigeria? Gen. Sani Abacha was not an ordinary man or citizen of Nigeria.
“For such an important case which involves the country’s president, it should not be taken lightly and handled by you alone. Let me be very clear here that you are simply seeking cheap publicity and relevance.
“Until the author provides verified, documented answers to those questions—names, nationality, investigation records, authorisation for release, and supporting documentary evidence—no serious reader should treat this account as anything more than an unsubstantiated narrative.
“The account remains unverified, unsupported, and unconvincing. It should not be trusted. It reads as little more than a salacious attempt to attract attention and sell a book,” he added.
Al-Mustapha disputes Amachree’s account
Mr Etete’s comments came after Mr Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer, Hamza Al-Mustapha, also rejected Mr Amachree’s version of events.
Mr Al-Mustapha, speaking with journalists in Kaduna in July, described the account as false and said it did not reflect what happened at the Presidential Villa.
Mr Amachree was serving as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos SSS Command when Mr Abacha died.
Mr Al-Mustapha claimed he had evidence to disprove the account, although he did not make the evidence public.
“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.
He urged Nigerians to disregard the account.
“Just ignore his lies. It’s bad to say such things about someone who is dead,” he stressed.
What Amachree said
In his memoir, Mr Amachree gave an account of what happened at the Presidential Villa in the early hours of 8 June 1998.
He explained that Mr Abacha’s girlfriend had arrived at Aso Rock with her younger sister, a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a conference.
According to Mr Amachree, the girlfriend later returned to her hotel, leaving her sister with Mr Abacha.
He said the woman realised during the encounter that Mr Abacha had stopped responding. She allegedly checked his pulse and found none.
Mr Amachree stated that she panicked, dressed and asked a soldier on guard duty to arrange transport to her hotel.
By the time security officials were alerted, he noted, she had already left Abuja on an early morning flight to Lagos.
Mr Amachree said he was later directed by SSS headquarters to locate and question her.
He claimed his team found the woman and brought her to his office, where he personally interrogated her.
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According to him, she told him: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”
Mr Amachree stated that he subsequently contacted the SSS Director in Abuja and the woman was flown back.
He said the account showed that Mr Abacha died from what he described as a coitus-induced cardiac arrest and dismissed theories that the former ruler had been poisoned.
Mr Abacha seized power in a military coup on 17 November 1993 and ruled Nigeria until his death.
The federal government noted at the time that he died after a sudden illness. His death has nevertheless remained the subject of speculation, with different accounts emerging over the years from people who were involved in, or claimed knowledge of, the events surrounding his final hours.
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