KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Kalabakan MP Datuk Ghapur Salleh is demanding that the National Security Council take control of securing Sabah’s borders, after another Chinese citizen was abducted by Philippine raiders yesterday.

The outspoken Umno MP also sought for the new Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to be disassembled, after the agency was unable to prevent yesterday’s abduction, the second such incident in a month.

Ghapur said people of the state are becoming increasingly incensed over previous pledges to secure the state’s borders against incursions by foreigners who enter with seeming impunity.

“Sabahans are fed up with all the promises of the federal government,” Ghapur was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper today.

“We have been part of Malaysia for 51 years now but the government doesn’t think of our safety.”

He added that security breaches have badly affected the state tourist arrivals, particularly from China.

Yesterday, five armed raiders abducted a Chinese manager of the fish farm near a coastal town at Pulau Baik, Lahad Datu and fired at Malaysian security forces before successfully escaping into Philippine waters.

Chinese national, Zailin Yang, 34, was the only person taken in the raid, and no casualties were reported.

The five unidentified men, two of whom were dressed in army fatigues and armed with M-16 machineguns while three were in civilian attire, made off with Yang on a boat.

On April 2, gunmen believed to be Filipino militants descended on a resort in Semporna and abducted two women, 29-year-old Chinese tourist Gao Hua Yuan and 40-year-old Filipino resort employee Marcy Dayawan.

The two remain hostages. The kidnappers have made ransom demands for Gao.

Esscom was established following the invasion of Sulu militants in Lahad Datu last year.

The unit is responsible to keep tabs on the 1,400km of the eastern coast of Sabah ranging from Kudat to Tawau.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim has repeatedly defended Esscom’s performance, saying the recent tourist abductions there were a “transnational crime” and not “intrusions”.