A retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has recounted how Nigeria’s secret police assisted the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the arrest of notorious plane hijacker Omar Rezaq in Lagos in 1993.
CityNews reports that Amachree gave details of the operation in his memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, in which he chronicled his four decades in Nigeria’s intelligence service.
Rezaq, a Lebanese-born militant, was one of three hijackers who seized EgyptAir Flight 648 in 1985.
According to Amachree, the operation that led to Rezaq’s arrest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos was completed within 15 minutes.
Amachree said the operation began in July 1993 when the then Director-General of the State Security Service, Peter Nwaoduah, contacted him and instructed him to prepare for the arrival of a security team from the United States Embassy.
He said Nwaoduah directed him to cooperate fully with the visitors without initially providing further details about the mission.
“Less than an hour later, a contingent of FBI special agents arrived at my office. They confirmed that the Director General had briefed them, and we immediately pivoted to the operational task at hand,” Amachree wrote.
The retired intelligence officer said the FBI agents subsequently identified Rezaq as their target.
According to him, the suspect was travelling from Accra, Ghana, to Nigeria aboard a Ghana Airways flight scheduled to arrive at the Lagos airport.
“The objective was to secure his arrest with absolute discretion. Given the subject’s history of extreme violence, the agents emphasised that the operation required the highest level of professional precision,” he said.
Amachree said he assigned one of his officers to accompany the FBI agents to the aircraft boarding bridge so they could monitor the arrival of the flight.
He also contacted the military Airport Commandant at the time, John Ojikutu, and briefed him on the sensitive nature of the operation.
“Simultaneously, I reached out to my friend, the military Airport Commandant, John Ojikutu. After I briefed him on the sensitive nature of the operation, he acted with impressive speed, mobilising a unit of armed airmen to establish a secure perimeter around the arrival zone, ensuring we were prepared for any potential hostile reaction,” he wrote.
Amachree added that arrangements were also made for a privately chartered FBI Gulfstream IV aircraft to be positioned strategically to enable the agents to leave Nigeria immediately after the arrest.
According to the former DSS official, Rezaq was intercepted once the Ghana Airways flight landed at the airport.
He said the suspect was handed over to the FBI agents, who immediately departed Nigeria with him aboard the chartered aircraft.
“The entire ground operation, executed with surgical efficiency, took exactly 15 minutes,” Amachree stated.
He said the speed and secrecy of the operation were necessary because of concerns that any delay could jeopardise the arrest or trigger a security incident at the airport.
Rezaq was later prosecuted in the United States and convicted in 1996 on charges including air piracy.
He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Amachree said his role in the operation earned him formal recognition from the United States government.
According to him, then US President Bill Clinton presented him with a plaque of commendation following the successful arrest and transfer of Rezaq.
