UPDATE 1-Beaten and cowering, kidnapped Nigerian students beg for help

(Recasts with video of the students, adds quotes)
By Garba Muhammad
KADUNA, Nigeria, March 13 (Reuters) - A video of some of the
students kidnapped from a college in northwest Nigeria emerged
on Saturday, showing them cowering on a forest floor as armed
captors hit them with sticks.
Thirty nine students are missing after gunmen stormed the
Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in Kaduna state
overnight on Thursday, the fourth school abduction in northern
Nigeria since December.
Video footage shared on social media showed roughly two
dozen students begging for help in English and Hausa. One says
the captors want a 500 million naira ($1.31 million) ransom.
"If anybody comes to rescue them without the money they are
going to kill us," a male student says in the video as a man
with a gun stands behind him.
College Provost Bello Mohammed Usman and the mother of one
kidnapped student on Saturday identified those shown in the
video as some of the abducted students, including one pregnant
woman. Usman declined to comment on the ransom request.
Abubakar Sadiq, executive secretary of the Kaduna State
Emergency Management Agency, said he was unaware of the video
and that he had no authority to comment on the ransom demand.
Earlier on Saturday, Kaduna state security commissioner
Samuel Aruwan said nine more students were missing than
previously thought - 23 females and 16 males.
"The Kaduna state government is maintaining close
communication with the management of the college as efforts are
sustained by security agencies towards the tracking of the
missing students," Aruwan said.
The armed gang broke into the school, located on the
outskirts of Kaduna city near a military academy, at around
11:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) on Thursday. Aruwan said a further 180
students and staff members who were staying at the school were
rescued early on Friday.
Attacks by gangs of armed men, known as bandits, have
intensified for several years, and military and police attempts
to tackle the gangs have had little success. Many worry that
state authorities worsen the situation by letting kidnappers go
unpunished, paying them off or providing incentives.
In a statement on Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari urged
that the missing students be found and returned safely to their
families.
Gloria Paul said she recognized her 20-year-old daughter,
Joy Kurmi Paul, in the video, wearing a pink headscarf. Outside
the school on Saturday, the mother begged for help.
"Please, government should help us get them released without
hurting them," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

($1 = 380.5500 naira)