Former Chief Security Officer to late military ruler and dictator, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, has debunked claims made by a former Department of State Services (DSS) operative, Mr. Amachree, regarding the final moments of the late military ruler, describing the account as false
He described the claims as untrue and appealed to Nigerians to disregard them.
Hamza Al-Mustapha spoke on Saturday while addressing newsmen on the sidelines of the 3rd General Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at Arewa House in Kaduna.
Though, the rebuttal is coming following renewed public attention on Amachree’s memoir, The Shadow Warrior, in which the retired DSS officer presented his version of events leading to Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998.
While rejecting the account, Al-Mustapha insisted it did not represent what transpired.
“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.
The retired army officer maintained that he possesses evidence capable of disproving the narrative contained in the book, although he did not provide further details about the alleged footage or state whether it would be released to the public.
He further urged Nigerians not to accept the claims, arguing that it was unfair to level accusations against someone who was no longer alive to respond.
“Just ignore his lies. It’s bad to say such things about someone who is dead,” he said.
Abacha assumed power after a military coup on November 17, 1993, and remained Nigeria’s Head of State until his death at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 8, 1998.
At the time, the Federal Government announced that he died after a brief illness. However, the circumstances surrounding his death have continued to generate debate and remain one of the most disputed episodes in the country’s political history.
Over the years, former military officers, intelligence personnel, diplomats and political figures have offered varying accounts through books and interviews, resulting in conflicting narratives about the late leader’s final hours.
Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the DSS who served during the Abacha administration, recently reignited the controversy by publishing his own version of events in his memoir.
The publication has since attracted reactions from several former officials who served during the military regime.
Al-Mustapha, regarded as one of Abacha’s closest associates, has consistently challenged accounts he believes distort the image of the late Head of State or misrepresent events from that era.
The former CSO remains a controversial figure in Nigeria’s history. Following Abacha’s death, he was arrested in 1999 and prosecuted over the attempted murder of publisher Alex Ibru and the killing of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola.
He spent more than 10 years in detention before the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in 2013.
Since his release, Al-Mustapha has repeatedly defended the Abacha administration, maintaining that many allegations against the late military government and its officials were politically driven or lacked factual basis
