RUMORS OF NAJIB’S HUGE CASH STASH AT PMO SPIRAL AS ZAHID DENIES EX-PM’S CLAIM IT WAS UMNO MONEY IN HIS OFFICE: ‘I DON’T KNOW, I WAS NOT INFORMED,’ SAYS UMNO PRESIDENT – SO WHO WERE THE REAL LOOTERS WHO LEFT BEHIND RM3.5 MIL ‘CRUMBS’ FOR THE GUARDS TO ‘DISTRIBUTE AMONG THEMSELVES’

KUALA LUMPUR: Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi  says he has no knowledge of the millions in cash kept in the Prime Minister’s Office under the previous administration.

The Umno president was asked to comment on 17 security personnel from the Prime Minister’s Department who have been remanded for allegedly misappropriating RM3.5mil in funds.

The funds were supposed to be used during the May 9 general election.

Dr Ahmad Zahid said he did not know if the money belongs to Umno.

“It is really not proper for them to ‘faraid’ (distribute) the money among themselves.

“I don’t know, I was not informed on this matter,” he said when met at the Parliament lobby here Thursday.

Dr Ahmad Zahid said it was best to leave the matter to the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the alleged theft.

“It is best if we leave it to the authorities,” said the former Home Minister.

Sources said the 17 security personnel allegedly abused their power to secure the money from the Prime Minister’s Office.

They were said to have shared the money among themselves in the morning of May 10.

So far, anti-graft officers seized some RM840,700 and nine motorcycles, worth RM90,000, as part of the investigation.

On Tuesday (Aug 7), the suspects were arrested after their statements were recorded at the MACC headquarters here.

One of them was a Grade 52 security officer while the others were from Grade 11 to 38.

The 17, aged between 31 and 51, were brought to the Putrajaya magistrate’s court on Wednesday (Aug 8) in a MACC bus.

Magistrate Siti Nabilah Abd Rashid allowed an application to detain them for five days over the case.

ANN