A battalion has been sent to Kwara state in the west. On Tuesday evening, armed men attacked two villages there.
The Red Cross initially reported that at least 162 people had been killed. Television images from the scene showed bodies piled on sandy streets.
"So far we have found 175 dead. Many of them were discovered in the forest," a local leader told the Spanish news agency Efe.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said Muslim residents of the villages tried to resist extremists who wanted to take control of the villages.
