A former close aide of Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman Said has lodged a police report over discrepancies within the movement in order to save it from a leadership that is said to be 'not credible'.

Elly Zalilah Yusof told a press conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon that she had lodged the report with the Brickfields district police headquarters yesterday.

She said that, among the 'abuses' allegedly committed by Azalina was the registering of four Puteri Umno vans under the names of people with no ties to the two-year-old movement.

Elly also refuted the claim that the wing has 90,000 members, saying that a 'double membership' was given to some, including herself.

In addition, she questioned the need for three separate financial accounts for the movement.

She also admitted to having spied for Azalina on potential threats to the leadership before falling out of favour with her.

Elly is now part of ' Enam Jahanam ' (Wicked 6). The label was given by Azalina's supporters to former exco members and close aides of hers who are said to be plotting her ouster as the chief of the wing.

The 38-year-old lawyer-cum-politician was handpicked by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to lead the wing.

Knife on car windscreen

Elly hoped that the police report and expos on the discrepancies in the Puteri Umno leadership would put the movement back on track. She also wanted to stop the opposition parties from taking advantage of the discrepancies to continue badmouthing the wing.

She claimed that her decision to blow the whistle on Azalina had been retaliated with threats made on her life.

"Someone once put a knife on my car windscreen (as a warning)," she said. And yesterday, her car was scratched while she was lodging the police report against Azalina in Brickfields.

Elly claimed she has evidence on Azalina's abuse of power and would not hesitate to further expose them.

Asked why she was exposing the secret now when the wing's election is just six weeks away, Elly said she had brought forward the matter to a senior Umno leader verbally before, but was told that the matter "should be investigated by the police".

She said the party leader did not take any action against Azalina despite knowing about her wrongdoings.

Claiming that Azalina's leadership was "full of conspiracy", Elly said her past job was to check if the state chiefs could pose a threat to Azalina.

"I did advise Azalina that she can't go on with this (attitude) when she decided to sack [information chief] Mastina [Abdul Karim]," she said.

Elly said the members deserve to know the truth about what has been happening in order to pick the right person to lead the wing.

Shame

To date, Mastina and former exco Raihan Suleiman Palestine who was also sacked from her post by Azalina, have expressed their intention to contest for the top post in the Nov 1 election.

Elly, who was allegedly promised an exco position before she was sacked but was not given it, said she does not represent either Raihan or Mastina, nor does she intend to contest for any post.

She hopes that whoever leads Puteri Umno will show respect to their elders in the party's women's wing, which is not the case now.

She added that Azalina's leadership has brought a lot of shame to Puteri Umno, which was well capitalised by the opposition parties, as had happened in the recent by-elections in Pendang and Anak Bukit, Kedah.

"Puteri Umno members even felt embarrassed to wear the movement's jacket during the recent by-election," said Elly.

Nevertheless, she hopes that Azalina could change her leadership style if she is elected to lead the movement again.

Yesterday, Raihan said she also felt responsible to save Puteri Umno from being made an issue by the opposition member so long as it is under Azalina's leadership.

A businesswoman whose father had challenged Umno president Hussein Onn in the 1978 Umno presidency election, Raihan also claimed that she has two memberships in Puteri Umno.