Communities in central Nigeria put the number of people taken in a mass kidnapping last month at more than 500 Thursday, contradicting claims from the local state governor that only a few dozen had been abducted.
Niger state Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago's comments sparked protests Monday in Borgu district, where locals say suspected jihadists kidnapped hundreds in an attack during Friday prayers.
Africa's most populous country is battling a 17-year insurgency by jihadist groups, which have made mass abductions a key tactic -- including the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok.
According to the list published Thursday, 547 people were taken during the attack on the mosque in Dikera -- also known as Dekera or Dekara -- and the surrounding villages of Kpenya, Giagbasso, Gbenji and Gbebara.
The document, signed by Zubairu Umar, a local youth activist, and seen by AFP, listed all 547 names individually, saying it was a "comprehensive" count and that their whereabouts remain unknown.
In a video circulating on social media following the raid, several hundred people, many of them women and children, were seen gathered in a forest and presented as hostages taken from Dikera.
Bago's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Authorities have been accused at times of downplaying violence in Nigeria, where kidnapping for ransom has turned into a multimillion-dollar industry.
The country's jihadist insurgency is concentrated in the northeast, though the Niger state attack was near the western border with Benin -- an area that has seen increased activity by local armed groups and militants from the neighbouring Sahel as the conflict has splintered.
Northwest and central Nigeria are also awash with non-ideological "bandit" gangs that raid villages, conduct kidnappings and "tax" farmers and miners.
Shortly after the attack, President Bola Tinubu ordered security forces "to launch a coordinated rescue operation".