Yamani Hafez Musa, the son of former chief minister Musa Aman, has been confirmed as a PPBM member, ending months of speculation over his position.
Sabah PPBM secretary Ronald Kiandee, who is also the Beluran MP, said party chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad presented Yamani with his membership card at a party function in Kota Kinabalu today.
“Yamani is now a PPBM member,” he said after a meeting between senior Sabah PPBM leaders and the prime minister at a hotel here.
Kiandee said Yamani, the Sipitang MP, would sit with government backbenchers in Parliament from now and no longer as an independent.
Yamani was part of the mass exodus of senior Sabah Umno members from the party last December.
In June, he said he was unsure if he was a PPBM member because he was still seated on the Independents bench in Parliament although he was told his membership had been accepted.
Yamani, who won the Sipitang seat under a Barisan Nasional ticket in the May 9 general election said he had applied to join the Pakatan Harapan component party before the start of this year.
In June, Yamani won a legal battle to keep his seat after the Federal Court struck out an appeal from Warisan which filed an election petition to challenge his victory.
PPBM now has five MPs and nine assemblymen, making it the second-biggest party in the state after Parti Warisan Sabah.