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Nearly three decades after the sudden death of Nigeria’s former military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, a retired senior officer of the Department of State Services (DSS) has offered what he describes as the most intimate and definitive account yet of the dramatic events that unfolded in the early hours of June 8, 1998.

In his newly released memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, former Assistant Director of the DSS, Dennis Amachree, claims Abacha died from a cardiac arrest while in the company of a woman at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The account shifts attention away from the conspiracy theories that have surrounded Abacha’s death for almost three decades and instead focuses on the traumatic experience of the woman at the centre of the incident.

According to Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos DSS Command at the time, the woman—a pharmacist who was in Abuja for a professional conference—was left alone with the late Head of State after accompanying her elder sister, described as Abacha’s girlfriend, to the Aso Rock Guest House.

The elder sister had reportedly visited to show Abacha a newly acquired sport utility vehicle he had bought for her before returning to her hotel, leaving her younger sister behind.

Amachree wrote that at about 4:05 a.m., the woman noticed that Abacha had suddenly become unresponsive during an intimate encounter.

Despite checking for signs of life, she reportedly found no pulse.

Overwhelmed by panic, she hurriedly dressed and asked a soldier on duty to arrange a vehicle to take her back to her hotel, telling him only that “Oga” had instructed that she be driven back.

She later informed her sister of what had happened, and the pair reportedly rushed to the Abuja airport, where the pharmacist boarded an early morning flight to Lagos before security officials became aware of the circumstances surrounding the Head of State’s death.

Amachree said the DSS eventually tracked her down in Lagos for questioning.

According to him, the visibly distressed woman opened the interview with words that have remained etched in his memory.

“I did not kill him, he died on top of me,” she reportedly told investigators.

Amachree said her emotional account convinced investigators that Abacha had suffered what he described as a coitus-induced cardiac arrest, insisting that the woman’s testimony represented the true account of the former ruler’s final moments.

He argued that her statement effectively dispels the numerous conspiracy theories that have persisted since Abacha’s death.

General Sani Abacha died on June 8, 1998, while serving as Nigeria’s Head of State. His sudden passing marked a turning point in the nation’s political history, paving the way for a transition to civilian rule. It came less than one month before the death of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, widely regarded as the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.

Amachree’s memoir is the latest insider account seeking to shed new light on one of the most controversial and widely debated episodes in Nigeria’s political history.