Abdul Ghapur was elected unopposed to federal Parliament in 2004, for the newly created seat of Kalabakan on the border between Malaysia and Indonesia in East Sabah. In 2008, after his re-election (again unopposed), he was appointed a Deputy Minister for Resources and Natural Environment by Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi, only to resign eight days later. Later that year he openly criticised the BN government in Parliament for overlooking the needs of Sabah and Sarawak states, which had voted resoundingly in favour of BN in the
2008 election. He again spoke out against the federal government for what he considered to be its slow response to the
invasion of part of eastern Sabah by Filipino militants in 2013. At the same time, he criticised UMNO's internal election process as being open to corruption, claiming that "people will do anything just to get on the Supreme Council even if it’s very expensive". == Death ==