UMNO is aware that some of its members of parliament in Sabah are planning to quit the party, said Annuar Musa.

The party secretary-general said he is aware that some of the Umno leaders from its state chapter met Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“I know there were several Umno Sabah leaders who met with the prime minister last weekend,” he said commenting on talk that four of its five MPs were set to dump the party and become independents.

Currently, Umno has five MPs from Sabah.

They are Abd Rahim Bakri (Kudat), Azizah Mohd Dun (Beaufort), Ronald Kiandee (Beluran), Zakaria Mohd Edris (Libraran) and Bung Moktar Radin (Kinabatangan).

However, a source said controversial Bung Moktar is set to remain in the party and will not follow his colleagues out of Barisan Nasional.

In the 14th general election, Umno Sabah won eight parliamentary seats out of 26 up for grabs in the state.

Annuar said the party could not do anything to stop its MPs from leaving as it did not bind them to any agreement when they contested the last general election on its ticket.

The Umno MPs had indicated they were finding it difficult to service their constituents as they could not get allocations, he said.

“We are aware of the difficulty faced by our MPs and assemblymen in the state. We are not in power there.”

Umno was financially strapped as its accounts were frozen and it could not help its party men in Sabah, he added.

However, the Ketereh MP said the Sabah chapter of the party could not be dissolved by its leaders there.

“The future of the party in the state is in the hands of the Umno Supreme Council.” – December 11, 2018.