Lim Kit Siang has urged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to confirm or deny if he had three other Ambank accounts which were active at the material time of the alleged payment of RM9.5 million to lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as well the payment itself.

“Silence is simply not an option for the prime minister if he wants Malaysians and the world to believe he is committed to the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.

“A prompt and straight-forward confirmation is called for if Najib had three other Ambank accounts at the relevant period concerned, or there should be a denial; similarly, if Najib had paid Shafie RM9.5 million from his personal banking accounts - confirm if true, giving the reasons for the payment; deny, if untrue.

“Why is Najib finding it so difficult to do a simple thing?” he asked in a media statement.

He was responding to PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli who claimed that the existence of the three other accounts was revealed in a flowchart shown by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali during a press conference in January 2016...