Former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has challenged former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), to publicly release the CCTV footage he claims to possess of Abacha's final hours if he wishes to dispute the account presented in Amachree's memoir.
The challenge follows Al-Mustapha's recent dismissal of Amachree's account of Abacha's death, during which the retired army officer insisted that he had CCTV recordings showing exactly what transpired before the former military ruler died in June 1998.
Reacting to those remarks, Amachree argued that Al-Mustapha should support his claims with verifiable evidence instead of attacking the credibility of the author or dismissing the contents of the book as false.
Speaking during a telephone interview, the retired DSS officer maintained that his memoir was not a personal publication released without scrutiny, explaining that it underwent official vetting by the Department of State Services before it was made public.
According to him, the publication also received institutional backing as part of activities organised to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the DSS, further reinforcing his confidence in the information contained in the book.
Amachree disclosed that the security agency invited him from the United States to participate in the official launch of the memoir, which was attended by senior security officials, state directors of the service and members of the diplomatic community.
He argued that such official endorsement would not have been granted if the publication contained fabricated information capable of damaging the integrity of the agency.
Responding directly to Al-Mustapha's criticism, Amachree insisted that the former Chief Security Officer should produce the CCTV recordings he repeatedly referenced rather than relying on verbal denials.
He maintained that if Al-Mustapha truly possesses video evidence documenting Abacha's final moments, releasing the footage would allow Nigerians to independently assess the competing narratives surrounding one of the country's most controversial historical events.
Amachree also rejected Al-Mustapha's description of him as "a boy," pointing out that he was seven years old when Nigeria attained independence and later retired from the DSS as an Assistant Director.
He further noted that, in military equivalence, his former DSS rank corresponded to that of a Brigadier, while Al-Mustapha retired from the Nigerian Army with the rank of Major.
The renewed exchange follows revelations contained in Amachree's memoir, DSS@40, in which he offered his account of the circumstances surrounding Abacha's death and disclosed previously unpublished details about the late military ruler's health before June 1998.
In the book, Amachree claimed that Abacha had undergone major heart surgery, lived with a pacemaker and also suffered from liver disease before his death, arguing that these medical conditions formed part of the broader context surrounding his final hours.
Al-Mustapha has consistently rejected those assertions, insisting that the memoir presents an inaccurate version of events and alleging that its contents were written to promote a particular narrative about the late Head of State.
The retired military officer has maintained that he possesses CCTV recordings capable of disproving the claims but has not publicly released the alleged footage or provided additional evidence supporting his position.
The disagreement has once again revived public interest in the circumstances surrounding Abacha's sudden death on June 8, 1998, an event that has remained the subject of competing accounts for nearly three decades.
Over the years, former military officers, intelligence operatives, diplomats and political actors have presented differing narratives about the events leading to the late military ruler's death, making the issue one of Nigeria's most enduring historical controversies.
While Amachree insists documentary evidence and institutional vetting support his account, Al-Mustapha continues to reject the memoir's claims, leaving Nigerians with renewed calls for any available official evidence that could help clarify what truly happened during General Sani Abacha's final hours.