Warisan says to take ‘urgent legal steps’
KOTA KINABALU: Warisan will be taking urgent legal steps to compel the Sabah State Assembly Speaker to accept the resignation of Sebatik assemblyman, Hassan A. Gani Pg Amir and declare vacant the seat.
According to Warisan secretary general Datuk Loretto S. Padua, party lawyers have documents that clearly indicated Hassan’s agreement to resign as an assemblyman in the event he leaves the party.
“He (Hassan) also willingly signed a letter of allegiance to Warisan,” said Loretto in a statement yesterday.
In a letter dated 10 September 2020 to his lawyers, Hassan instructed them to date and submit his resignation letter to the Speaker and the Head of State in the event that he, among others, declared himself to be independent before or after being sworn in as an assemblyman, Loretto disclosed.
The lawyers, Loretto said, executed the instruction following his announcement to become an independent on 25 February 2021 and Hassan’s letter of resignation dated 26 February 2021 was then submitted to the Speaker, Datuk Kadzim Yahya on Tuesday.
Warisan had earlier released a video of Hassan declaring his oath to pledge allegiance to the party in the name of God, saying he would remain with the party till the end of the term of the assembly.
In the video recorded last year when he was named the Warisan candidate for Sebatik in the 2020 state elections, he pledged to submit his resignation letter to the
Speaker and Head of State should he breach his allegiance to Warisan.
“All Warisan candidates made the pledge of loyalty to the party voluntarily with no element of coercion from the party. Further, it was Hassan’s second opportunity contesting in the state elections under the Warisan ticket having lost to a Barisan Nasional candidate in 2018,” Loretto stressed.
Warisan, he said, is saddened by the Speaker’s decision not to accept Hassan’s resignation and therefore will take legal recourse immediately.