Penang Chief Minister will not apologise to Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and is willing to face the latter's lawsuit.

"Azeez Rahim, please lah.

"We will contest the suit," Lim told a press conference in Parliament today.

The DAP secretary-general was responding to the ultimatum given by Azeez earlier today, to retract his statement and publicly apologise in four days, for alleging Azeez had received RM3 million for "consultancy work" from the tunnel contractor Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd in the Penang undersea tunnel project controversy, or face a lawsuit.

Azeez (photo), who is also an Umno supreme council member, said he had, through his lawyer, sent two letters of demand to Lim's office and home in Penang, yesterday.

Elaborating further, Lim said he has yet to see the said letters as he is in Kuala Lumpur to attend the Dewan Rakyat proceedings.

"I have not gone back to Penang, maybe he sent to my office, I have to check first," he said.

Azeez had earlier been named as having received RM3 million Zenith for "consultancy work", but the company has since withdrawn the letter of demand sent to him on Feb 24, over "inaction" to carry out the work promised.

The MACC, meanwhile, has arrested two businesspersons in connection with the case.

Despite the scrutiny, Lim has insisted that the tunnel project is "clean" and that the contract was awarded to Zenith in 2013 through an open tender process.