Ex-DSS director recounts role in FBI arrest of EgyptAir hijacker Omar Rezaq in Lagos

A RETIRED Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has revealed how Nigeria’s secret police worked with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to capture notorious EgyptAir hijacker Omar Rezaq in Lagos in 1993.

Amachree disclosed the details in his memoir, ‘DSS @40: My Journey Behind the Shield,’ where he reflects on key operations carried out during his four decades in Nigeria’s intelligence service.

Rezaq, a Lebanese-born militant, gained international notoriety after participating in the 1985 hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 alongside two other militants.Recalling the operation, Amachree said he received an urgent call in July 1993 from the then Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Peter Nwaoduah, directing him to prepare for the arrival of a security delegation from the United States Embassy. Although no details of the assignment were disclosed, he was instructed to provide full cooperation.

He wrote that within an hour, a team of FBI special agents arrived at his office and informed him that their target was Rezaq, who was travelling from Accra, Ghana, to Lagos aboard a Ghana Airways flight scheduled to land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

According to Amachree, the FBI stressed that the arrest had to be executed quietly because of Rezaq’s violent history, making precision and secrecy critical to the mission’s success.

To facilitate the operation, he deployed one of his officers to accompany the FBI agents to the boarding bridge, allowing them to monitor the aircraft’s arrival while remaining out of public view.

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He also contacted the military Airport Commandant, John Ojikutu, who quickly assembled armed airmen to secure the arrival area against any possible security threat.

Amachree further stated that he coordinated the positioning of a privately chartered FBI Gulfstream IV aircraft, ensuring it was ready for the immediate evacuation of the suspect once the arrest had been completed.

After the Ghana Airways aircraft landed, Amachree said he personally intercepted Rezaq before transferring him to the waiting FBI agents, who departed Nigeria with the suspect aboard the chartered jet.

“The entire ground operation, executed with surgical efficiency, took exactly 15 minutes,” he wrote.

Rezaq was later tried in the United States and, in 1996, convicted on charges including air piracy. He received a life sentence.

Amachree added that his role in the successful international operation earned him a formal plaque of commendation from then US President Bill Clinton.