Be a man, sue me, Muhyiddin challenges Najib

Former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin has dared his former boss Najib Abdul Razak to sue him, if allegations about the premier's corruption are not true.

This is in regard to accusations that Najib had swindled public money through 1MDB, causing much national hardship.

"I challenge Najib to deny this. Answer these accusations yourself.

"Do not use running dogs like (your press secretary) Tengku Sariffuddin (Tengku Ahmad) and others to answer for you and shield you.

"Be a man. I challenge Najib to sue me if what I say is untrue," Muhyiddin said in a statement today.

He said this when responding to Tengku Sariffuddin, who had said the former was making claims that Najib had RM4 billion in his accounts to distract from an alleged affair.

Najib has denied misusing public funds, dismissing them as part of a plot to topple him.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali had also cleared the prime minister of any criminal misconduct in the 1MDB scandal.

However, Muhyiddin said Najib's alleged corruption was shown in the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) lawsuits on the embezzlement of 1MDB funds.

"The corrupt high-ranking official in the Malaysian government identified by DOJ as 'Malaysian Official 1' is none other than PM Najib Razak. PM Najib Razak is MO1 who had schemed with Jho Low and Riza Aziz to plunder 1MDB of the billions that have been lost."

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan had confirmed with the BBC that Najib is MO1.

The DOJ in its legal lawsuits claimed that MO1 had received US$731 million allegedly stolen from 1MDB funds.

Rahman, however, said Najib was not part of the DOJ's suit to seize back more than US$1 billion in assets purchased with monies allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.

He also said there was no need for Najib to step down.