A procession of cars and motorcycles moved from Kota Baru to Pasir Puteh yesterday evening to step up the pressure on the federal government to fulfill its oil and gas royalty commitment to Kelantan.

The group, dubbed Gabungan Profesional Menuntut Royalti, Hak Pendaratan Minyak dan Gas ke Kelantan (Royalti), (Coalition of Professionals for Royalty and Oil and Gas Landing Rights) had originally slated the event for tomorrow, in conjunction with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's visit to the state.

return oil royalty convoy kelantan 1 Instead, Royalti secretary Mohd Hisyamuddin Ghazali said, on the advice of the police, the event was held two days earlier.

"The police contacted us and asked us in good faith not to have the convoy on the day of the prime minister's visit to avoid any untoward incident," Hisyamuddin told Malaysiakini when contacted late yesterday evening.

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He added that the original plan was for the convoy to head for Pasir Puteh via downtown Kota Baru, Bachok and Ketereh, all of which are reportedly on Najib's itinerary.

However to "avoid chaos", they kept to only to the Kota Baru-Pasir Puteh route yesterday.

return oil royalty convoy kelantan 3 The programme to pressure Najib's administration has been held thrice in the PAS-led state.

Prior to this, Royalti had travelled in similar fashion some 184km along the Kota Baru-Kuala Krai-Gua Musang route, and about 60km from Kota Baru to Rantau Panjang, involving some 500 participants.

The coalition claims that the unpaid royalties have piled up to RM7 billion since 2005.

Najib's visit is believed to be related the BN's promise to the resolve the Kelantan oil royalty issue as soon as possible, before the 13th general election.

In addition, Hisyamuddin claimed that word was already being spread among the Kelantanese that the premier would be bearing good news when he calls on them.

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