Shafie Apdal's Semporna Umno division has retracted its invitation to party president Najib Abdul Razak in favour of his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin.

This is over fears that Najib's presence at the division annual general meeting on Aug 15 may cause tensions to spiral out of control.

This was after Najib, who is also prime minister, dropped Shafie ( photo , white shirt ) as rural and regional development minister last Tuesday for his criticism against 1MDB.

According to a source close to Shafie, he said the snub against Najib was at the request of Umno grassroots members in Semporna.

"We are worried that the situation may become uncontrollable if the invitation went ahead," he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

Deputy chief tightlipped

Meanwhile, Semporna Umno deputy chief Nasir Sakaran was tightlipped about the move to snub Najib.

"I don't want to comment, I don't want to make the situation worse," he told Malaysiakini .

Nasir said he would only weigh into the matter after a divisional meeting tomorrow.

Aside from Shafie, Muhyiddin was also dropped as deputy prime minister for criticising Najib's handling of 1MDB.

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