Dennis Amachree, a retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), has recounted how Nigeria’s secret police helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrest plane hijacker Omar Rezaq in Lagos in 1993.
TheNewsGuru reports that Amachree described the operation in his memoir, DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield, where he reflects on his forty years in Nigeria’s intelligence service.
Rezaq, who was born in Lebanon, was one of three men who hijacked EgyptAir Flight 648 in 1985.
Amachree said the operation to arrest Rezaq at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos took just 15 minutes.
He explained that the operation started in July 1993, when Peter Nwaoduah, the Director-General of the State Security Service at the time, told him to get ready for a security team from the US 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.
He said the suspect was traveling from Accra, Ghana, to Nigeria on a Ghana Airways flight that was scheduled to land at Lagos airport.
“The goal was to arrest him as discreetly as possible. Because the suspect had a history of extreme violence, the agents stressed that the operation needed to be carried out with the utmost professionalism,” he said.
Amachree said he sent one of his officers with the FBI agents to the boarding bridge to watch for the flight’s arrival.
He also called the military Airport Commandant at the time, John Ojikutu, and explained how sensitive the operation was.
“At the same time, I contacted my friend, the military Airport Commandant, John Ojikutu. After I explained how sensitive the operation was, he quickly sent a team of armed airmen to secure the area around the arrival zone so we would be ready for any possible trouble,” 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 could leave Nigeria right after the arrest.
The former DSS official said Rezaq was stopped as soon as the Ghana Airways flight landed at the airport.
He said the suspect was handed over to the FBI agents, who left Nigeria with him right away on the chartered plane.
“The whole ground operation was carried out very efficiently and took exactly 15 minutes,” Amachree said.
He said the operation had to be fast and secret because any delay could have put the arrest at risk or caused a security problem at the airport.
Rezaq was later tried in the United States and found guilty in 1996 of charges including air piracy.
He was then sentenced to life in prison.
Amachree said his part in the operation earned him official recognition from the United States government.
He said that then US President Bill Clinton gave him a plaque of commendation after the successful arrest and transfer of Rezaq.