Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin has denied that he was in Sabah for political reasons.

On the other hand, he insisted his visit to Sabah was on official duty as Minister of Home Affairs.

Asked about his presence since three days ago, Hamzah said it was a matter of his ministry such as meeting with agencies and officials.

"I don’t know, as I’ve said I am visiting the rat trails (in the east coast of Sabah) but I haven’t found any 'rats' in these three days.

"Perhaps the ones talking are them, not me because I came to see the officials, the agency that was with me," he said in a press conference after visiting the Manggatal Provincial Detention Centre (PTS) here on Sunday.

Earlier, speculation was mounting over the political turmoil in Sabah, where Warisan president, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had revealed that there had been attempts to lobby representatives of the state government party.

At a press conference in Kota Kinabalu, Shafie also recently criticized the state opposition which he claimed had used various tactics to undermine the stability of the existing government.

Hamzah, meanwhile, called on Sabahans to unite in dealing with illegal immigrants (PATI) issues, including involving human trafficking syndicates rather than on political issues.

"All of us must work together, all the people of Sabah. All the people living in Sabah need to work together to catch these 'mice' (tikus-tikus), not politicians (politikus)," he said.