The photo which showed him giving the thumbs up with an unidentified person, has been going viral on Facebook since this morning. The original source of the photo is not known.

FMT has reached out to Bung, who is the Sabah Umno chief, for comment.

When contacted over the matter, state tourism, culture and environment minister Jafry Ariffin said he has instructed the sabah wildlife department to look into the claim.

“With regards to a certain photo of a state Cabinet minister dining with what looks like some turtle eggs on the table, I have directed the department to conduct a full investigation.

“Let them do their work first and see what they come up with,” said the state Umno secretary in a brief text message .

In 2017, then rural and regional development minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob filed a RM10 million defamation suit against the Daily Express publisher and editor in connection with the publication of three articles on a turtle egg dish allegedly served at an event in Sabah.

Ismail filed the lawsuit on March 30 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court claiming that the defendants had wrongfully and maliciously published the three articles in the Daily Express on protected turtle eggs served at a dinner function in Kota Kinabalu which the former attended in 2015.

The now senior minister for security sought an apology from the defendants as well as damages.

In their defence, the defendants denied publishing and printing the articles with wrongful or bad intentions.

The following year, the parties in the case agreed to settle the matter out of court.

Lawyers representing their clients, however, declined to disclose the terms of settlement recorded before judicial commissioner Darryl Goon in chambers.