Five Upko assemblymen – Masiung Banah, Abidin Madingkir, Ewon Benedick, Bobby Suan and Limus Jury also defied an instruction by party acting president Madius Tangau to quit BN.

The five are currently with Musa at the chief minister’s official residence in Sri Gaya.

“We won our seats on BN ticket and will remain to be in the party,” they told a press conference today, accompanied by Jeffrey and his brother Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who heads PBS.

Jeffrey won the Tambunan seat. His party also won the Bingkor seat through Robert Tawik.

Jeffrey’s presence at Sri Gaya was a surprise especially after he was tipped to have preferred to go with Warisan and PH.

Warisan needs two assemblymen to defect to its fold in order to form the government with a simple majority.

Meanwhile, at the same press conference, Musa said the state government was clearly BN’s, which now has 31 seats, including two STAR seats, against PH’s 28.

“Do the arithmetic. We should be allowed to be sworn in to form the state government,” he said.