Defence Headquarters, has cautioned Amnesty International to desist from campaign of calumny against the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Its Acting Director of Defence Information Colonel, Onyema Nwachukwu who sounded the warning said Amnesty International latest report against troops on alleged sexual assault in detention facilities in the northeast was malacious and false.

Nwachukwu said the report was another calculated attempt to ridicule the armed forces, saying the Defence Headquarters had taken note of yet another ill-conceived report by Amnesty International aimed at disparaging the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the fight against terrorism and counter-insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country.

He said the Amnesty International recent allegation that its investigation had revealed sexual assaults in detention facilities at Giwa Barracks Maiduguri and the Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison was only a rehash of its characteristic unfounded and ill-conceived accusations against the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Nwachukwu said while the Armed Forces of Nigeria would not speak for the authorities of the Maiduguri Maximum Prison, they wish to emphatically state that such allegations were mere concoction of the organisation and the interest it seeked to represent.

He said the report was nothing but an attempt to push further its campaign of calumny against the Armed Forces of Nigeria, as the allegations were remotely impossible.

Nwachukwu said it was instructive for Amnesty International and its sponsors who may be more interested in the failure of Nigeria in the ongoing fight against terrorism and insurgency to note that the accusations were unfounded and a very poor attempt at dampening the morale of troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

The Giwa barracks detention facility is a national facility, therefore, the suspects or inmates are jointly handled by professional investigators drawn from the Defence Intelligence Agency, Nigerian Police, Department of State Security, Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Prisons Service and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.