LABUAN: The family of a 45-year-old missing man, Ariffin Nayan of Kampung Kilan here, continued searching for him yesterday even though the police, fire and rescue and civil defence units already called off the operation on Wednesday.
Ariffin’s nephew, Mohd Faizal Khamis, who lodged a police report over his uncle’s mysterious disappearance on Monday, yesterday said they felt sad and were still hoping to find him.
“Today my family went to search for him around the compound of our house. My mother who woke up first in the morning went to search for him first.
“Then, my father, my nephew and myself followed up this morning. At midday, my brother together with his friend tried to look for him in the woods, but found nothing,” he said.
Faizal described his uncle who is his mother’s first cousin as friendly, easy to talk to and also had no problem with his family.
Ariffin, a self-employed and a bachelor, came from Miri, Sarawak and stayed with Faizal’s family since six months ago.
“He is a good man and he liked to share his stories and experiences with me such as his travel experiences to Pontianak, Kalimantan while working as a lorry driver at an oil palm plantation in Sarawak.
“I feel sad right now for I have no friend to talk to,” said Faisal who came back from Limbang, Sarawak in July this year after working there for over a year.
It was Faizal who was asked by his mother to look for Ariffin in the bathroom around 5.30pm last Sunday after he did not answer their calls.
When Ariffin did not come out of the bathroom, Faizal went to check on him and found it empty. He only saw his towel and the back door of the bathroom opened.
Faizal said before Ariffin went missing the latter told them that he wanted to finish all of his work at Faizal family’s new house as well as his neighbours’ houses.
“He is a hardworking person and good in repairing and building houses.
“He also used to follow my father into the woods to tap the rubber trees,” he added.
According to Faizal, since the first day of Aidilfitri his uncle had acted weirdly, became quiet and asked for our forgiveness repeatedly about five to six times.
“He asked for forgiveness from each of our family members and he thought that he had burdened us by staying and eating together with us.
“I think he’s not at fault and we are the ones who were supposed to ask for forgiveness and be thankful to him for he had helped us a lot here,” he said.
Faizal added that his family and the villagers of Kampung Kilan had performed a prayer (solat hajat) at the village’s surau on the evening of Wednesday with the hope that Ariffin would return to his family.
It is learnt that more than 10 Malay bomohs, including the head monk of a Chinese temple here, had helped to search for Ariffin.
The bomohs agreed that Ariffin had been hidden by a ‘genie’ (spirit) in the woods.
According to the bomohs, the spirit who was the father of a girl, wanted Ariffin to marry the daughter in “their world”.