A retired Department of State Services (DSS) officer, Dennis Amachree, has claimed that the woman who was with Nigeria’s former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, at the time of his death told investigators that she did not kill him, insisting he died during an intimate encounter.

According to Amachree, who served as Assistant Director of Operations and Intelligence at the Lagos State DSS Command, the woman, described as an Igbo pharmacist, made the statement while being interrogated following Abacha’s sudden death on June 8, 1998.

Speaking in his newly released 348-page book, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, Amachree wrote that Abacha died at about 4:05 a.m. at the Presidential Villa in Abuja after reportedly suffering what he described as a coitus-induced cardiac arrest.

He said the woman immediately travelled to Lagos after the incident but was later traced and brought in for questioning.

According to Amachree, her first words during the interrogation were: “I did not kill him, he died on top of me.”

He added that after obtaining her detailed account, he contacted the DSS Director in Abuja, after which she was flown back to the Federal Capital Territory.

Amachree maintained that the woman’s account represents the true circumstances surrounding Abacha’s death and argued that it dispels the conspiracy theories and conflicting narratives that have circulated over the years.

Gen. Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death in June 1998 at the age of 54. The circumstances surrounding his sudden death have remained the subject of public speculation for decades.