KK squatters identified; 20 homes in Sandakan smashed
Published on: Friday, July 24, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: City Hall will help Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd counter electricity thefts in squatter areas here.Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir said DBKK was very concerned and ready to cooperate to locate squatter houses which had illegal wiring connections. "These squatter houses are not supposed to make illegal electrical connection from houses that were supplied electrical facility legally by the SESB. Therefore, we will cooperate with the related authorities to look at this matter before taking any action. ADVERTISEMENT "We will look into a few squatter colonies in Kota Kinabalu areas...and we will do a survey on the location and total number of squatters before we implement a containment policy," he said.Abidin was commenting on fireman, Apolos Jeromos, 25, who was killed when he was electrocuted while dousing a forest fire at Taman Kenari, Batu 7, Sandakan recently. Abidin said containment efforts are in order to stem illegal activities such as electricity theft."We have conducted census to identify the areas and number of squatters. And, we are also implementing containment policy, as in to contain the number of squatters in the city to avoid a drastic hike in figures," he said.ADVERTISEMENT According to the current statistics released by City Hall, there are about 40 colonies of squatters that hosts around 5,095 homes, while the total number of squatters in the city reach about 25,687 people. In SANDAKAN, 20 squatter houses near where Apolos was electrocuted to death after stepping on a live wire on Monday were demolished by the Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC) enforcement unit, Wednesday.
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The operation was led by SMC Enforcement Officer, Irman Tajudin Edi and Assistant Enforcement Officer, Sairin Abd Rahman.Sairin said all the houses were occupied by illegal immigrants.It is understood that, in the early hours of Wednesday, prior to the operation, Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) personnel had conducted a raid in the squatter colony to weed out illegals. On Monday, Fire and Rescue personnel, Apolos Jeremos, 25 was electrocuted while putting out a bush fire at a squatter colony here.Jeremos was killed when he stepped on an illegal live wire connection from a pump house to the nearby slum areas while he and his teammates were putting out bushfires near the abandoned area.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The demolition operation exercise on Wednesday was executed by 16 members of the SMC and six policemen as well as six Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) personnel here.Sabah Fire and Rescue Department Director, Nordin Pauzi had earlier called for action to be taken on the culprits so that what had happened to Jeremos will not happen again.