A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has challenged Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex-Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, to make public the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage he claims captured the events surrounding Abacha’s death.
Responding in an interview with The Nation, Amachree said Al-Mustapha should back up his denial with verifiable evidence instead of attacking him personally.
“If he says he knows what happened that night, let him release the CCTV footage,” he said.
The challenge followed Al-Mustapha’s rejection of claims made in Amachree’s newly released memoir, DSS @ 40: My Journey Behind the Shield, in which the retired intelligence officer wrote that Abacha died in June 1998 after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Al-Mustapha had dismissed the account, alleging that Amachree was merely executing “a script” written for him by others and insisting that the version contained in the book was false.
“The boy was asked to write the lies by others. I have all the CCTV footage of what happened in my custody, so what he said is not true,” Al-Mustapha said.
Amachree also defended the credibility of his memoir, saying the publication underwent the DSS’ internal review process and received the agency’s approval before it was released as part of activities marking its 40th anniversary.
He disclosed that the DSS invited him from the United States for the official unveiling of the book, an event attended by senior security officials, state directors of the service and members of the diplomatic community.
The former intelligence officer further rejected Al-Mustapha’s description of him as “a boy”, arguing that his professional standing within the DSS placed him above the retired army officer in equivalent rank.
“I was seven years old when Nigeria gained independence. I retired as an assistant director, which in army terms is equivalent to a brigadier, while Al-Mustapha retired as a major,” Amachree said.
News Credit to our media partner DailyTrust Home .
