ABACHA: 28 years on, still no evidence

By Dan Etete

I have read the claims made by Mr Dennis Amachree in his memoir concerning the death of General Sani Abacha, as reported by a newspaper on July 21, 2026.

Mr Amachree asks Nigerians to accept a detailed account of the final hours of a Head of State on nothing but his own recollection, offered twenty-eight years after the fact.

He names no witness. The woman on whom his entire account depends is not identified. There is nothing to show she has ever confirmed a word of it.

He produces no post-mortem. No record of the interrogation he says he conducted. No file number, no signed statement, no duty log, no visitor’s book, no medical finding from anyone qualified to make one. He places a quotation in the mouth of a person he will not name and asks us to treat it as history.

He tells us the time to the minute. He tells us the room. He tells us what was said. Twenty-eight years on, from memory, with nothing on paper behind any of it.

He is careful to dismiss every other account for lacking evidence. He then offers his own on precisely the same footing.

So let the questions be asked plainly. Where is the post-mortem report? Who is this woman, is she alive, and has she confirmed this? Where is the record of the interrogation — the date, the place, the signature? What file number covers it? Who was the officer he says he telephoned, and has that man

corroborated a word? What flight manifest, what hotel register, what duty log supports any part of this timeline? On what medical authority was a cause of death determined, and by whom?

None of these are unreasonable questions. Every one of them should have an answer. Not one of them has been answered.

I do not write as a lawyer or a spokesman for General Abacha. I served in that government. I knew the man, and I know him as a close friend. And I am telling you plainly: I do not believe a word of this.

In twenty-eight years, through every inquiry and every commission, through all the years when the people close to that night were still alive and still talking, this account was never once raised. Not to

me. Not to anyone I know. It surfaces now, for the first time, in a book with a price on it I do not pretend the record of those years is beyond argument. It is not, and it will be argued over long after all of us are gone. But a man’s death is not entertainment, and a country’s history is not built on the unsupported memory of one man.

I cannot tell you what is in Mr Amachree’s mind. I can tell you what is in his hands: nothing. No post-mortem. No file. No signature. No woman. He did not provide any evidence because they do not exist.

Now, for clarity, please address the following as well:

What are the so-called woman’s name and her nationality? Why did you allow her to leave the country without filing a serious criminal investigation against her? Who ordered her release and subsequent departure from Nigeria? Gen. Sani Abacha was not an ordinary man or citizen of Nigeria.

For such an important case which involves the country’s president, it should not be taken lightly and handled by you alone. Let me be very clear here that you are simply seeking cheap publicity and relevance.

Until the author provides verified, documented answers to those questions — names, nationality, investigation records, authorization for release, and supporting documentary evidence — no serious reader should treat this account as anything more than an unsubstantiated narrative.

The account remains unverified, unsupported, and unconvincing. It should not be trusted. It reads as little more than a salacious attempt to attract attention and sell a book.

•Etete is a former Minister of Petroluem Resources