KOTA KINABALU, Jan 25 ― Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has denied courting Sabah Umno chief Datuk Bung Moktar Radin to join his party taking over the Sabah government.
The Sabah chief minister said he has not made any contact with Bung since the May 9 elections and therefore had no opportunity to persuade him to join the party.
“I haven’t seen him in awhile,” he said when asked to comment on Bung’s statement that he had and continues to receive invitations to ditch Umno.
“I haven’t met Bung since then. It’s his statement. Before the formation of Warisan and before the election I met him and he has his own stand ― he wanted to remain in Umno. That’s the last I met him, and since then he has become the Sabah Umno chairman.
“I did not offer him to join Warisan, but before the election, yes,” he said.
In an interview with Malay Mail recently, the Kinabatangan MP said that he has been, and still is being courted to leave Umno.
He said that he was always always being offered to join Warisan, but he “does not want it yet” because without his “big brother” Shafie’s leadership, the party would be “directionless”.
Shafie formed Warisan in 2016 after being suspended from Umno, and vowed to topple the Sabah government.
His party was a mixture of former Umno, PKR and DAP state assemblymen along with newcomers.
In the May 9 elections, he teamed up with PKR and DAP to form a simple majority and takeover government from Sabah Barisan Nasional.
