THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has hauled up Party Warisan Sabah Youth chief Azis Jamman as part of its widening probe into funds diverted from rural projects in Sabah, the Star reports.

Social media had been abuzz with talk that Aziz had been called up for questioning, which the politician confirmed to the portal.

“They called me, I said okay. Now, I am going on my own,” he was quoted as saying, but declined to comment further.

Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking had posted on Facebook that Azis had been called up for questioning by MACC.

The latest post by Leiking said Azis had submitted his details to MACC and that he had been instructed to present himself at 10.30am tomorrow for further questioning.

Azis, a former Semporna Umno Youth chief, left the party in 2015 and joined Warisan when Shafie Apdal, a former Umno vice-president, formed the party in 2016.

Azis is the latest politician to be questioned in MACC’s widening probe into funds misappropriated from projects that were supposed to be carried out by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry.

Shafie had led the ministry before he was sacked in 2015’s cabinet reshuffle that also so Muhyiddin Yassin dropped as deputy prime minister.

The sacking was preceded by months of both men questioning Prime Minister Najib Razak over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

On Thursday, Warisan vice-president Peter Anthony was detained by MACC in its investigation and was remanded for five days the following day.

Anthony had denied allegations making the rounds on social media that he had made a false claim of RM42 million while undertaking work for Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and that he was under investigation by MACC over false claims.

Yesterday, Shafie slammed the arrest of Anthony as selective prosecution.

“The MACC probe now is to eliminate me, after they failed to pin the Sabah Water Department money laundering case on me,” Shafie said, referring to last year’s Sabah Water Department corruption case that involved at least RM52 million.

Shafie said Najib had signed an excellent key performance indicator testimonial when he was rural and regional development minister.

Initial reports of MACC’s investigations into the case cited 15 companies siphoning RM180 million in government funds meant for development projects in rural Sabah.

On Friday, MACC deputy commissioner for operations Azam Baki said that figure had now ballooned to a staggering RM1.5 billion.

He said investigators believe a network of 60 companies had colluded with Rural and Regional Development Ministry officials to pocket the money, which was part of the RM7.5 billion allocated to Sabah from 2010 to 2016 for water and electricity supply projects. – October 8, 2017.