Al-Mustapha rejected the memoir’s claims about Abacha’s final hours, and said he had proof

The former Chief Security Officer of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has rejected the allegations contained in the memoirs of retired Department of Foreign Service (DSS) officer Dennis Amachree regarding the circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death, and described the report as untrue.

Speaking to journalists after the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna on Saturday, Al-Mustapha stressed that the version of events presented in the book should not be taken seriously by Nigerians.

His comments come amid fresh debate over Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the former intelligence agent gives his personal account of the events that led to the late military ruler’s death on June 8, 1998.

Denying the claims, Al-Mustapha alleged that the publication did not present an accurate account of what happened.

“The boy was asked by someone else to write those lies. I have all the CCTV footage of what happened in my custody, so what he said is not true,” Al-Mustapha said.

The retired military officer stated that he had evidence capable of refuting the narrative contained in the memoir but did not provide further details about the alleged recording or indicate whether he planned to release it to the public.

He also appealed to Nigerians to ignore the claims, arguing that it would be unfair to level accusations against someone who is no longer alive to respond.

“Just ignore the lies. It’s not nice to say things like that about dead people,” he said.

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General Sani Abacha assumed power on November 17, 1993, following a military coup and remained Nigeria’s Head of State until his sudden death at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.

At that time, the Federal Government announced that Abacha had died following a sudden illness. However, the events surrounding his death continue to generate speculation and remain one of the most debated episodes in Nigerian political history.

Over the years, former military officers, intelligence officials, diplomats and political figures have told various accounts of the late Head of State’s final hours through books, interviews and public statements, often presenting conflicting narratives.

Amachree, who retired as Assistant Director of the DSS and served during the Abacha administration, recently revived the long-standing controversy with the publication of The Shadow Warrior, in which he narrates his version of the events surrounding Abacha’s death.

The memoir sparked reactions from several former officials associated with the military government, including Al-Mustapha, who has consistently opposed statements he believes distort the legacy of the late Head of State or misrepresent events of that era.

Al-Mustapha himself remains a prominent and controversial figure in Nigerian political history. After Abacha’s death, he was arrested in 1999 and tried for the attempted murder of publisher Alex Ibru and the murder of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola.

He spent more than a decade in custody before the Court of Appeal, in 2013, exonerated him.

Since his release, the former Chief Security Officer has repeatedly defended the Abacha administration, stating that many of the accusations leveled against the late military government and its officials were politically motivated or not supported by credible evidence.