KOTA KINABALU, Sept 27 — Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman called for tighter security today amid an ongoing offensive in the neighbouring Philippines to flush out its militant Islamist groups.

Musa, who is the Sabah Security Council chairman, said extra vigilance was needed to curb attempts by the Philippine rebels to sneak into the north Borneo state.

“Any kind of smuggling, especially human trafficking needs to be completely shut down in order to prevent the possibility of terrorists entering our state as normal civilians.

“There is a need to increase blocks at all entry points into the state including those often used by smugglers. Authorities need to take a holistic approach in order to really combat this issue,” he said in a statement after chairing a meeting here.

Musa said he was ordering all security agencies in the state to be more proactive and increase their intelligence capability including building relationships and cooperation with their counterparts in neighbouring countries.

“Our predictive intelligence needs to be better to ensure we can identify the threats sooner and react effectively to solve the problems.

“All agencies should be on high alert against any threat, especially in Esszone,” he said, adding that he is ordering all the agencies to work together to stop any cross border incidents like kidnapping, smuggling and intrusion by cross-border groups.