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Nigeria has remained quiet over claims that Boko Haram militants have hoisted their flag and taken over Damboa, a major settlement in the country's northeast Borno state, following a Friday morning raid when several villagers were killed.
Neither police nor the military has spoken on the incident which occurred Friday.
Calls and short message service by Anadolu Agency to defence spokesman Chris Olukolade were not answered.
Head of the Nigerian secret police Ita Ekpenyong sidestepped the issue at a major briefing on Monday, despite reports that hundreds of residents have deserted the area, according to Abbas Gava, a senior member of the local vigilante group who spoke to Anadolu Agency on Monday night.
"People have deserted the area because the insurgents have now hoisted their flag there. Damboa now belongs to the terrorists," Gava told AA.
Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram militants on Friday morning laid siege on Damboa town in Nigeria's northeast, killing scores of villagers and injuring several others, according to local vigilante sources.
"Victims who died cannot be less than 20 because the gunmen who we believe to be Boko Haram terrorists came just when people were set for dawn Muslim prayer," Khalid Yayi, a member of local vigilante, told AA from Damboa town.
He said there was no response from the military when the attack happened. "Damboa has now been left in complete ruin because the houses were brought down with explosives," he added.
Defence spokesman Olukolade did not respond to AA's enquiry on the attack on Friday, and the security agencies have remained quiet on the incident, which occurred barely two weeks after militants laid a deadly ambush on the Nigerian troops resulting in heavy casualties on the part of the insurgents, according to a military statement.
Gava had confirmed the attack to journalists in Maiduguri, provincial capital of the violence-prone Borno.
"Casualties could be very high because my contacts in Damboa said they are still picking and piling the corpses," Gava said. "But many houses, nearly half of what remains of the several attacked town has been burnt".
Damboa, a town more than 80 kilometres away from Maiduguri, has suffered repeated attacks from the insurgents including a 2013 attack in which over 200 people were massacred.
Borno is one the three northeastern states under emergency rule, imposed last year May to rid the region of Boko Haram militants whose activities have claimed tens of thousands lives since 2009.
By Rafiu Ajakaye
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en - Lagos
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