A DAP lawmaker has called for the government to empower Sabahans with arms, in order to resolve the security issue at the coastal area.

The Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) should be dissolved as it had failed its mission in protecting the people, said DAP's Sri Tanjong state assemblyperson Chan Foong Hin.

This comes after the Associated Press reported a German national was kidnapped and his girlfriend killed when the Abu Sayyaf militant group stormed their yacht which was travelling in Sabah waters.

Esscom said it did not get any report of the alleged kidnapping.

Security at the remote islands improved with the deployment of armed forces at tourism hot spots, Chan said, hence similar measures should be implemented for goods vessels and fishing vessels.

"If Esscom can't provide armed forces (to protect) fishery vessels, why can't our government consider empowering our people who risk their lives to earn money through the open sea there, by allocating arms to them?

"Self-protection is much more reliable than those armed forces who are away from them.

"If government can't protect us, let us protect ourselves," he said.

With Esscom disbanded, Sabah's security should be handled directly by the Home Ministry and the Defence Ministry, he said.

He added Esscom also had its priority wrong, focusing on the freeze on barter trade on the coastal area ostensibly due to security reasons, even though it had not helped in curbing cross-border crimes.

Sabah waters and coastal areas have faced security issues involving kidnap cases, with the worst in 2000 when the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped 21 people from a vacation resort on a Sabah island.

Despite the formation of Esscom in March 2013, kidnap cases continue on the state's eastern region.