Musa Aman asks Sabah people to stay safe after no-show at nominations

“Take care of yourselves; may you all always be safe,” he said in a Facebook posting today.

Musa did not turn up at the nomination centre for the Sungai Manila seat, where he had been expected to contest.

In an earlier cryptic FB message on Sept 9, Musa said: ”I will return to Sungai Manila.”

That message led to intense speculation that the incumbent Sungai Sibuga assemblyman from UMNO would be moving to contest in Sungai Manila, a new seat under the Libaran parliamentary constituency.

However, his no-show today deepened the mystery surrounding the political future of Musa, who had held the Sungai Sibuga seat since 1994.

One of his aides, who did not want to be identified, told Bernama that Musa had no plans to hold a press conference at the time this story was written.

Nominations were held today for the 73 seats up for grabs in the state election, polling for which is on Sept 26.

Thirty-three state assemblymen led by Musa, 69, had announced on July 29 that they made up the majority in the state assembly and wanted Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin to swear in a new government that would oust the state government of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Mohd Shafie, who is Semporna MP and incumbent assemblyman for Senallang, pre-empted Musa’s move by advising Tun Juhar to dissolve the state assembly, which had 65 members at that time, including five nominated assemblymen.

Attempts were also made to stop the election through various court applications but they were dismissed by the courts.