KUANTAN: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has asked the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to re-evaluate its monitoring and enforcement system and ensure that each resort under its jurisdiction has sufficient number of security personnel.
He said some of the resorts covered big areas and require more security personnel to be stationed on the ground.
Najib said the latest attack by a group of gunmen at Pulau Mabul was serious as it showed that the armed intruders were able to penetrate Malaysian waters despite the security being strengthened under Esscom.
"They have a cache of weapons and could make an ambush and bypass our security personnel. They may have received information from the locals on the movement of our security personnel," he told reporters after attending a briefing on the development in Pahang here today.
Najib said Esscom must increase the number of its security personnel at the resorts if the present strength was inadequate to cover the whole area.
He also said that the police were now identifying the gunmen who were believed to have come from southern Philippines
About 11pm last night, eight gunmen clad in black shirt and pants with military fatigues came in a boat from the direction of southern Philippines, before firing at security forces near the resort jetty at Pulau Mabul.
In a brief exchange of fire that ensued, a marine police identified as Corporal Abd Rajah Jamuan was killed while his colleague Constable Zakiah Aleip was reported missing.
Esscom commander Datuk Abd Rashid Harun confirmed that Zakiah is still missing, believed to have been abducted by the gunmen.