Residents of five communities in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State have accused the military of failing to come to their aid during a recent attack on their town by armed bandits.

The allegation followed the conflicting number of people said to have been killed when the communities came under attack on Wednesday last week.

The affected communities are Gon, Mega, Bolki, Nzumosu, and Bang.

While the residents said 30 persons were buried, the police authorities maintained that 15 people were killed.

Some of them who spoke to Channels Television over the weekend noted that they were yet to come to terms with the devastation.

They alleged that the military failed to come to their aid, despite being informed of an imminent attack well ahead.

They also claimed that instead of protecting them, the military came to the communities only to disarm them of their Dane guns, bows, arrows and cutlasses before departing.

The residents further called on the Federal and state governments to improve the security presence in their communities to stop the killings.

One of the victims who survived the attack, Bagoje Bulus, said, “They attacked, burned houses, killed people, and destroyed our properties.”

Reacting to the allegation, the military faulted the claims that troops were unable to come to the aid of residents of the communities.

Commander of the Nigerian Army, 23 Brigade in Adamawa State, Brigadier General Mohammadu Bello, denied the claim during a telephone interview with Channels Television on Monday.

He said about 250 soldiers from the special forces battalion were deployed to tackle the killings in the state and the crisis in Taraba.

Brigadier General Bello, however, admitted that the distance between the scenes of the Numan attacks and where the soldiers were deployed in Taraba was quite much.