Yusof announced yesterday that he was leaving the opposition party to become an independent assemblyman backing Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the federal level and Hajiji at the state level.

“It is the democratic right of every state elected representative on which side they choose to serve,” Hajiji told reporters after launching the state-level National Sports Day here today.

“We thank these elected representatives who support the GRS state government’s agenda.

“As such, we can now focus on unity and development for the people in Sabah.”

Yusof is the second Warisan assemblyman to quit this year, following Sebatik assemblyman Hassan A Gani Pg Amir’s departure on Feb 25.

This latest turn of events leaves Warisan with only 20 seats in the 73-seat state assembly.

Meanwhile, Hajiji said the Sabah government has allocated an economic stimulus package of RM6 million to the state human resource development department to help retrenched youths and those who have lost their sources of income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the Minds for Malaysia (M4M) “Bridging the Skills Gap” virtual conference organised by MyProdigy Malaysia earlier today, he added that the package was among initiatives taken by the government in this year’s state budget to overcome the unprecedented challenges brought about by the pandemic.

“In order to strengthen human capital development and produce a competent and resilient generation, the state government had specifically allocated RM22.96 million in the 2021 state budget to carry out skills training in technology, technical and commercial fields”, Hajiji said.