SABAH RCI Self-proclaimed Sabah sultan Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad said the Suluk intruders would have backed off from their claim on Sabah had he been made sultan of the state.

NONE Akjan ( left ) told the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on immigrants in Sabah that the intruders’ general Agbimuddin Kiram from the defunct Sulu sultanate had met him prior to their incursion on Sabah.

“When Datu Agbi came - in February if I am not mistaken - he had appealed to me to become the sultan of Sabah.

“I made an agreement with them that they would drop their claim on Sabah if I became sultan,” he testified at the Kota Kinabalu Court Complex.

Akjan said he had then conveyed this agreement to the police but they had ignored him.

“To save Sabah, I was prepared to become its sultan but the police officer I told about this did not inform his higher-ups,” he said.

'I'm not a fraud'

Subsequently, Akjan who is a businessman, said he was arrested "like a terrorist" when the Suluks from Philippines launched an incursion on Lahad Datu, Sabah.

NONE When pointed out by conducting officer Jamil Aripin ( left ) that there were claims that Akjan was a fraud, including by self-proclaimed Sulu sultan Jamalul Kiram, Akjan called his detractors' "senile".

"He (Jamalul) even launched an incursion on Sabah, he has gone senile. The incursion was a joke.

"Pity the old man, I wanted to sue him but because he is like a grandfather I could not do it," he said.

The 56-year-old father of 28 also denied being born in Zambongoa, Philippines, and insisted that he was a local-born Sabahan.

Two other witnesses also testified at the RCI today, bringing the total to 200 since hearings began in January.