Hamid Apdal's children dispute dad's 'millionaire' status

Hamid's daughters are (from left) Amizah, Nurul Azirah, Azureen and Amisah.

KOTA KINABALU: The children of Hamid Apdal, who was arrested by graft busters recently, are disputing claims that their father is a millionaire.

"This is far from the truth," said Hamid's eldest daughter Nurul Azirah, 26, in a press conference at the Parti Warisan Sabah media room here.

She also said that her father was issued with a bankruptcy notice in 2014.

"Like other families, we have our struggles," she said, adding that their first house had to be auctioned off seven years ago.

Also present at the press conference were her younger sisters Nurul Amizah, 25; Nurul Amisah, 23, and Nurul Azureen, 19.

Hamid, the younger brother of Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, was arrested on Oct 10 by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) in its probe into the alleged siphoning of rural development funds meant for Sabah.

Nurul Azureen said they had been living in their present house at Petagas since 2007, which had to be renovated to increase the number of bedrooms from three to six to accommodate three families.

Nurul Azirah said she and her sister Nurul Amizah were married with their own families and continued to live with their parents.

"There are 15 people living in that terrace house. It is not a massive bungalow," she added.

She claimed their father was working as a car salesman even before they were born and had additional income from Felda which was using family land to cultivate oil palm in the east coast Semporna district.

Nurul Azirah added that the last time they saw their father was when MACC officials brought him to their house on Oct 10.

Hamid is among seven detained and remanded in connection with the probe into the alleged skimming of up to RM1.5bil in federal project allocations in Sabah through the Rural and Regional Development Ministry.

The MACC is expected to make more arrests as it scrutinises some 350 projects given to about 60 companies between 2009 and 2015.

The money was allegedly siphoned from RM7.5bil worth of project funds.

The MACC has so far frozen RM170mil in bank accounts and assets of some of the companies involved.