Mohd Akjan missing?

Police seek interpol’s help to trace Mohd Akjan. The controversial self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu, Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad had given Sabah police the slip.

KOTA KINABALU: Police here have been put in an embarrassing position following the disappearance of former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee and self-proclaimed Sultan fo Sulu, Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad.

Sabah Police Commissioner Hamzah Taib said that they are searching for Akjan who appeared to have gone into hiding following his so-called coronation as the Sultan of Sulu at Kg Likas here on Feb 2 and the ensuing hue and cry.

He said police had been unable to contact Akjan after submitting their preliminary investigation papers to Bukit Aman who had asked for further statements to be recorded from the former Umno member.

“The problem is we are still trying to trace him. He is not in Sabah or in Kuala Lumpur,” he said after attending a Police Day ceremony on Thursday.

It is understood that the police have contacted Interpol and their counterparts in the region to help trace Akjan.

Akjan caused a stir in February this year when a self-proclaimed government-in-exile declared him Sultan Shariful-Hashim II and declared that he was the heir to the Sulu Sultanate with a historical claim on Sabah.

Akjan and other Umno operatives were arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in the mid 1990s.

The arrests were triggered after he was allegedly caught with a briefcase containing about 2,000 ICs at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on a return flight from Kuala Lumpur.

It is believed that he was detained for allegedly selling the ICs to Filipino illegal immigrants in Sabah for between RM500 and RM3,000.

After his released from detention two years later, Akjan repositioned himself in Umno at federal level and managed to align himself to former premier Tun Abdullah Badawi.

By Michael Kaung