Kidnapping could be an inside job, says Minister
Published on: Sunday, September 16, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Silam MP Mohammadin Ketapi (pic) does not dismiss the possibility of the recent kidnapping of two Indonesian fishermen in Semporna being an "inside job" rather than by culprits from Mindanao in southern Philippines.Mohammadin, who is also Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, said he is confident that the East Coast waters is safely guarded by the security forces, especially the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) which makes it hard for any intrusion."I do not want to comment further on the case as this is under the police's jurisdiction," he said when asked.
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"Even if we have sufficient safeguarding by the authorities, especially Esscom, such incidents (kidnapping) still happen. Perhaps...this is only my personal view, it happened from the inside and not from the outside".He based his assumption on the fact that if the kidnappers came from the outside, they would have been stopped by Esscom personnel...but, I honestly do not know." He was speaking after officiating the Installation Art by the Bay@KK2018, at the Segama Boardwalk, Saturday.Nevertheless, Mohammadin is confident that the incident would not affect tourist arrivals in the State."The Ministry will inform potential tourists that such incidents do not occur regularly and we will achieve our targets for this year. Furthermore it usually happens in certain areas in the East Coast," he said.
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