Police zoomed in on Penang CM Lim Guan Eng's political aide Ng Wei Aik today on Umno's allegation that he had accused the party of attacking DAP's headquarters with paint last month, and being involved in suspected arson there a few days after that.

The Komtar assemblyperson said he received a call from the police on Sept 15, asking him to provide his statement based on a report lodged by state Umno information bureau chief Azizi Jaafar.

NONE Umno is also initiating a RM30 million civil defamation suit against Lim for alleging that Umno was behind the two attacks.

It has also lodged a 23-page police report, urging the force to investigate Lim for possible criminal defamation.

Ng (right in pic ) had initially refused to attend the questioning as police had yet to detain any suspect linked to the two cases.

However, he decided to meet the police as otherwise he would face a court order compelling him to so.

"How do they know that the suspected arsonists are not from Umno or any other party?" questioned Ng.

"Umno's report was merely based on an assumption, why are the police so afraid of them?"

 Questioned for an hour

Ng said he was questioned for about an hour at the Jalan Pattani police station by ASP Ibrahim Husin, who is part of the Investigation Unit.

He said Umno had provided the police with articles from three online news websites - Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider and Free Malaysia Today , which carried reports dated Aug 18 related to Lim's comments on the incidents.

He said the police had highlighted several paragraphs, including one that quoted Lim as saying, "We felt that this was one of those attacks by Umno on the recital of the Quran issue," in The Malaysian Insider.

NONE In the Malaysiakini report , Lim ( left ) was quoted as saying that the attacks could be a backlash from the controversy arising from the recent loudspeaker ban on the recital of Quranic verses in mosques by the Penang Islamic Affairs Council.

Yesterday, police also recorded a statement from the Malaysiakini journalist covering Lim's Aug 19 press conference on the issue at the DAP office on Jalan Talipon.

Ng said by using the paragraphs in the selected news reports to justify the accusation against Lim, Umno had displayed its shallow mindedness and appeared not to understand his statement.

Ng criticised Umno for lacking a good command of the English language, urging its members to "learn to improve (language skills) and not misinterpret the meaning behind those statements".

He said the police should compare the reports with new in other newspapers, which often used sensational headlines to attract  readers.

"This is just the newspaper's way of reporting, please do not turn this into an issue," he added.

Ng also said that the police should not be wasting human resources and time on the report lodged by Umno, adding that it would be better if they worked on finding the arsonist.

"They also asked me about my opinion on the case, whether Lim had linked the cases to Umno, and if we suspected anyone ," he added.