Henry Gudid says denying the STAR president entry to the state agriculture ministry is tantamount to criminal obstruction as he was appointed minister on March 10.
Lawyer Henry Gudid said a court of law must now determine who was the rightful CM — Musa Aman or Shafie Apdal.
PETALING JAYA: A Sabah-based lawyer has defended the move by Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Jeffrey Kitingan to turn up at the state agriculture ministry for work this morning despite rival Shafie Apdal, who is Parti Warisan Sabah president, taking his oath of office as chief minister yesterday.
Henry Gudid said Jeffrey had been properly sworn in as the agriculture minister-cum-deputy chief minister after state BN and Umno chief Musa Aman had earlier been sworn in as chief minister on March 10.
“Whatever that has been said, it cannot be legally disputed that Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan has every right to be at his agriculture ministry this morning,” he said in a statement today.
“To deny or threaten Jeffrey from further visiting the agriculture ministry is tantamount to criminal obstruction of his duties as the agriculture minister,” he added.
Earlier today, Shafie warned that no one was allowed to report for duty at any state ministry unless given permission by his administration.
He said he had informed the state secretary that individuals like Jeffrey should not go to ministry offices.
Jeffrey was appointed on Thursday night by Musa, who was himself sworn in the day after the 14th general election (GE14).
However, Shafie was sworn in on Saturday after obtaining 35 state seats, more than enough to form the state government following the defections of six BN assemblymen to the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan (PH) pact.
Henry said there was now no certainty about who was the rightful chief minister, unless it was properly determined by a court of law.
“While each party may have its views, Tan Sri Musa Aman was lawfully sworn in as the chief minister. The Yang di-Pertua Negeri has no power to dismiss or remove him.
He agreed with the views of retired Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram who said the head of state cannot revoke Musa’s appointment, even if Shafie now showed he had majority support.
He said comparing the situation to the 2009 Perak menteri besar crisis, between BN and the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat, might not be correct as the constitution of both states was different. -FMT
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