KOTA KINABALU: President of the Dayak International Organisation Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had called for calm amidst rising tension following the death of a Murut man after he was attacked in an altercation with another on Tuesday.
Jeffrey who extended his condolences to the family of Albert Requel Agang said the people should avoid taking the law into their own hands and instead, let the police do their due investigation on the matter.
“I have contacted the State police chief who told me the whole incident was caught on the shop’s CCTV. The police are doing their best to track down the two suspects and would leave no stone unturned,” he said in a statement today.
He added those suspected of protecting the perpetrator would be investigated too following allegations that some individuals in position of power had protected the suspects, allowing them to skip town.
The suspects were Hobalan N Vello, 37, also known as ‘Jimmy Black’ and Kesavan Perambalam, 34.
Hobalan had seven previous criminal records between 2003 and 2004 and was involved in the secret society group Geng 24 in Klang, Selangor. He also spent a year in jail in 2007 under the Emergency (Public Order and Crime Prevention) Ordinance (2007).
The other suspect, Kesavan, had eight previous criminal records for various misdemeanours.
In the incident on Friday night last week, Albert was severely injured after he was attacked with machete to his head while another man also suffered injury after he was allegedly hit on the head with a belt buckle.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey said the Sabah government will look into the current system that allows hardened criminals to be exiled to Sabah.
“Sabah has its own immigration law and the Chief Minister has the power to refuse to allow these people from coming here.
“The problem with the system is, these criminals are allowed to stay in peaceful districts and would then turn these districts into their new ‘headquarters’ to carry on doing their criminal activities because they still have their connections with their old gang,” he said.
He said the state government would not hesitate to kick out any troublemakers who came to Sabah.
At the same time, Jeffrey urged the people to control themselves when consuming alcohol especially during this holiday season.-pr/BNN
