Abacha’s death: I have CCTV footage – Al-Mustapha

By Tolulope Oke

Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), has rejected a former DSS officer’s account of the military ruler’s death, claiming that CCTV footage in his custody could contradict the allegations.

Al-Mustapha made the claim while dismissing as false an account given by retired Department of State Services officer Dennis Amachree concerning Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998.

He spoke to journalists on Saturday at the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference held at Arewa House, Kaduna.

The retired army officer alleged that Amachree was encouraged by unnamed individuals to publish a fabricated account of the events surrounding Abacha’s death.

“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,” Al-Mustapha said.

He maintained that the footage in his possession could contradict the version presented by the former DSS operative.

Al-Mustapha, however, did not provide details about what the footage allegedly contains or disclose whether he intends to release it to the public.

He urged Nigerians to disregard Amachree’s account, arguing that it was unfair to make allegations against a dead person who could no longer respond.

“Just ignore his lies. It’s bad to say such things about someone who is dead,” he said.

The controversy was renewed by Amachree’s memoir, “The Shadow Warrior,” in which the retired intelligence officer reportedly provided his account of Abacha’s final hours.

Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS, served during the Abacha administration.

Abacha seized power in a military coup on November 17, 1993, and ruled Nigeria until his sudden death at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.

The Federal Government announced at the time that the military ruler died after a sudden illness.

However, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained one of the most controversial episodes in Nigeria’s political history.

Former military officers, intelligence operatives, diplomats and political actors have offered conflicting accounts of what happened during Abacha’s final hours.

Books and interviews published over the years have also presented different versions of the events leading to his death.

Al-Mustapha, who was among Abacha’s closest aides, has repeatedly rejected allegations and accounts he believes misrepresent the late military ruler and officials who served under his administration.

The former CSO remains a controversial figure in Nigeria’s political history.

Following Abacha’s death, Al-Mustapha was arrested in 1999 and later prosecuted over the attempted murder of publisher Alex Ibru and the killing of Kudirat Abiola, wife of Chief Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

He spent more than a decade in detention before the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in 2013.

Since regaining his freedom, Al-Mustapha has continued to defend the Abacha administration, maintaining that several allegations against the late Head of State and members of his government were politically motivated or unsupported by evidence.