TELUK INTAN Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan has denied fleeing from the media over a botched defection ceremony that has left BN red-faced, saying that he was merely in a hurry for other programmes on the Teluk Intan by-election campaign trail.

"That is not a big matter. It is not that I wanted to run away but I had a lot of work.

"Reports claiming that I jumped (a drain to escape the press) are all lies," he told a press conference in Putrajaya this afternoon.

On Wednesday, Ahmad ( right in photo ) when speaking at a ceramah to explain the goods and services tax (GST) was interrupted by a note, which he promptly read out loud: " Malaysiakini is recording (your) speech".

After the ceramah, Ahmad strode hastily away into the dark, ignoring journalists queries about Tuesday's botched event, and even attempted to cross a drain to escape.

However, today he said it was impossible for him to have jumped the drain as it was too wide.

"It was a big drain, you can't possibly expect me to jump over it," he laughed.

Failed defection

The minister had been pursued by journalists in recent days for an explanation over the failed defection ceremony in which he was present together with MIC Wanita chief Mohana Muniandy.

The event was played up to the media as a defection of some 150 former DAP members to BN, but several confused members claimed they asked to attend the event under a different pretext and declared that they were still ardent DAP members.

Elaborating on the incident, Ahmad said he was not blaming anyone for the controversy that ensued, saying that mistakes do happen in political battles.

"I was told they were (former) opposition supporters.

"Some of them were not clear (on the event's objective). Some had already changed to BN T-shirts and so forth.

"It's normal for there to be injuries in war," he said in reference to the event.

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