'Sabah kidnappers had inside information' - PM

Datuk Seri Najib Razak today admitted that perpetrators in the Sabah kidnapping case must have possessed inside information for them to carry out the crime.

The Prime Minister also noted the impossibility of the government to place security assets at every nook and cranny and round the clock, to secure the border.

"They will act... it’s impossible for us to place our assets everywhere all the time.

"I feel this is a blow to us, when there's inside information, it would be very hard for us to secure the border which is vast," he told a media conference at the UMNO Supreme Council meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre today.

On Wednesday, Sabah police commissioner Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun had said a group of armed men had kidnapped the owner of a trawler and robbed his crew off Pulau Gaya in Semporna before commiting another robbery on another fishing boat off Tungku in Lahad Datu.

READ: Boat owner and crew missing, feared kidnapped

Kidnappings in Sabah involving local and foreign victims had been rampant over the last few years, with the Sulu-based militant Abu Sayyaf group being responsible for most of the cases.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had previously said Malaysia would form a solid partnership with the Philippines and Indonesia in handling the Abu Sayyaf menace.

He had said, through the cooperation, the three neighbours would streamline their security assets and efforts so that they could effectively tackle the group’s threats and hopefully curb the menace altogether.