Penang BN has now taken to questioning the state government's sale of the Taman Manggis land to two different buyers.

State BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong said that if this was true, the act was against the law, while Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had been "lying and was dishonest"over the issue.

He added that Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre Sdn Bhd (KLIDC) - the company which won the bid for the land - had mortgaged the land to a bank since November last year.

Despite that, Lim had accepted the BN's 1 % earnest payment to purchase the 1.1 acre land - purportedly earmarked for affordable housing - on Oct 3.

NONE "How dare they sell the land belonging to the poor twice?" asked Oh, at a press conference yesterday.

Lim, the DAP secretary-general, has vehemently denied the claim, saying that the BN had never earmarked the area for public housing during its administration, and had instead been asked by Umno to reserve it for a hawker site .

"We now have evidence to prove that the state government is violating the law. Lim's trying to cover up and cheat the people of Penang," Oh charged.

He asked the chief minister to clarify the issue within 24 hours, failing which the coalition may lodge a police report against him.

How about the RM22 million?

On the BN making good the remaining RM22 million for the plot along Jalan Zainal Abidin and comply with the two conditions set by the state government, Oh asked the CM to come clean on the matter first.

The coalition had agreed to acquire the land for RM450 sq ft and its payment period has been extended to another 30 days, until Dec 4.

"If the state does not come clean on this issue, it is useless to talk about anything else".

Meanwhile, state BN information chief H'ng Khoon Leng said he did a company search on KLIDC to find that they had already mortgaged the land to a bank to obtain a RM11,494,176 loan from AmIslamic Bank Berhad on Nov 10, 2011.

He added that the state government could only mortgage the land upon obtaining the land title or show any other valid document.

"It is fraudulent to sell land twice. It is sad to see them go to such a level to mislead the people of Penang," said H'ng at the same press event.

"We can lodge a police report but to be fair, we give the state government some time to explain why all these are happening," he added.

"If they do not respond within 24 hours, we will refer this issue to our legal advisor to decide the next course of action legally and politically," he stressed.

It was a debenture loan

H'ng also claimed that the land sale involved a "high level conspiracy between the chief minister's office and government agencies".

When asked if he had conducted a land search, H'ng said that he did so through the e-tanah system but there was no record on the matter and the State Land Office later said that no title had been issued so far.

NONE In an immediate response, Lim's political secretary Ng Wei Aik ( centre in photo ) said that the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) record shows that a "debenture loan" was taken.

He added that the loan was obtain based on general credit-worthiness and reputation of the company where no land title is involved or charged to the bank.

"They (BN) does not even know how to read the document and has turned into a laughing stock," said Ng, who is Komtar assemblyman.

"Up till now, the state government has never issued the land title to KLIDC. BN does not need to worry about what happens between the state government and the company," he added.

"The most important thing is, we will honour our promise. You (BN) pay the full sum, then we will register your name on the land title," he added.