KOTA KINABALU: Investigation appears to have been launched against Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star) president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
A team of MACC officers went to Jeffrey’s home, which also serves as his office, in Keningau for about an hour from 10pm.
According to sources the MACC probe is connected to Star’s alliance with the Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) to form the state government after the 14th General Election (GE14).
Star deputy president Jalumin Bayogo when contacted confirmed that Jeffrey, who is Tambunan assemblyman and Keningau Member of Parliament, had gone to the MACC office earlier today.
“I was informed of this when I contacted his lawyer. I think he (Jeffrey) will be giving a press conference after this,” Jalumin said.
There has yet to be an official response from the MACC on the investigation.
Star deputy secretary general Ardino Diris said he was called to give his statement to the MACC from about 10.30am until around noon today.
He said the MACC also went to Jeffrey’s house in Likas around midnight but no one was around to let them in.
“As far as I know, no documents were taken by the MACC from Datuk’s (Jeffrey) office,” he said.
Ardino said the MACC had also visited the party’s Bingkor assemblyman Robert Tawik’s home in Keningau.
In GE14, Star won two state seats and formed an alliance with the Sabah BN that had 29 seats to form the State government with a simple majority of 31 out of the 60 state constituencies.
With the coalition, Sabah BN chief Tan Sri Musa Aman was sworn in as the Chief Minister before Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin along with a cabinet line-up that included Jeffrey as Deputy Chief Minister and Agriculture and Food Industry Minister.
Two days later the Parti Warisan Sabah-Pakatan Harapan-Upko government was formed and Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal was sworn in as Chief Minister. This was followed with Musa being informed via a letter served to one of his aides that he was no longer the Chief Minister on May 14.