An Accra Fast Track High Court last Wednesday threw out a pre-trial hearing request by Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame not to include the Daily Guide Newspaper in a joint libel case filed against it and the Daily Searchlight Newspaper by the Chief Executive Officer of Food and Drugs Board (FDB).
It ordered Daily Guide Newspaper to file its defence in the substantive case and appear before the court on April 6, for the commencement of the libel case which also includes an injunction on the two newspapers from publishing libelous materials against the FBD boss, Dr. Stephen Opuni.
Copiously absent from court was Mame Adjoa Semanhyia of Semanhyia Herbal. No reason was given for her absence from the court, as her lawyers were also absent.
Madam Semanhyia had claimed that Dr. Opuni had closed down her herbal facility and also resorted to harassing her because she had declined his request to meet with him in a hotel to have sex.
While Mr. Ken Anku who represented The Daily Searchlight and its editor, Ken Korankye did not make any legal argument, Mr. Dame, in his request for the case to be struck out, insisted that the main content of the story as carried by the Daily Guide Newspaper, on its January 25 edition titled “FDB Boss Wanted Sex”, did not make any defamatory claims against Dr. Opuni.
But the judge, Justice Denise Adjei, in his ruling, agreed with counsel for the FDB boss, Mr. Eric Atieku, that the heading of the story as published by the Daily Guide Newspaper cannot be divorced from the content of the article, therefore, the paper ought to answer the case of defamation filed against it by Dr. Opuni.
The body language of lawyers Dame and Ken Anku, shortly after the adjournment, showed clearly they would prefer rather an out of court settlement to have the case resolved instead of engaging in a legal tussle with the FDB boss.
The 45-year-old herbalist, Maame Semanhyia, accused the FDB boss of harassing her and her outfit because she did not yield to his sexual advances.
The married woman and a mother of five is said to have told the Daily Guide at her Kasoa residence in the Central Region on January 24, this year, that she was invited by the FDB on August 15, 2010 over the registration of her herbal medicine.
When she honoured the invitation on the said date, the FDB boss subtly brought the police to arrest her.
She was detained in the cells of the CID Headquarters until the next day, and was fined GH¢20,000 as punitive measures against her for failing to register her products with the Board.
After negotiations, the amount was reduced to GH¢10,000, which she paid on the spot for her freedom. She claimed that ever since that incident, she had not known peace, although she had tendered in her application for the registration of all her 14 products. Only two out of the 14 were certified while the rest are awaiting examination.
Maame Semanhyia said she was, therefore, surprised that after a short while, the FDB was finding faults with her in order to run her business down.
“If Opuni’s wife buys pepper to prepare food for him without FDB’s certification, then God should question Opuni because pepper is also herbs”, she was quoted as saying.
Amidst tears, Semanhyia rained curses on the FDB boss, stressing that it was because she refused to satisfy Dr. Opuni’s sexual desires that he sought to disgrace her by banning her herbal products, thereby running her clinic down.
She maintained that all her 14 products had been duly registered with the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong Akuapem.
The story, however, changed as it turnout that the 45-year-old used the sex claims to thwart a damning laboratory report from the FBD on her medicines, namely: Sem Herbal Mixture, Sem Press Mixture, Sem Women care, Sem Diabe, Sem Fibro Mixture, Sem Assme Mixture, Sem Ex. Man Bitters.
The products were then subjected to laboratory analysis, and all of them were found to be unwholesome due to unacceptably high levels of yeast and moulds contamination. There should be no yeast or moulds at all.
These unacceptable high levels of microbial contamination could cause very serious health hazards. It could also lead to life threatening infections including Phycomycosis, Aspergillosis, Systemic Candidiasis and other yeast infections.
Systemic Candidiasis can lead to Endocardiatis (infection in the heart), Severe Osteomylytis (bone infection), Kidney problems and other systemic infections, all of which can lead to death.
Mame Semanhyia was later arrested and is currently on trial for selling unwholesome and unregistered medicine to the public.
Section 11 of the Food and Drugs Law, PNDCL 305 B states that ‘Any person who sells any drug, cosmetic, medical device or household chemical that has in or on it any substance that may cause injury to the health of the user when the article is used according to the directions on the label accompanying such article; or (ii) for a purpose and by a method of use that is customary or usual; consists in whole or in part of any filthy, rotten, decomposed or diseased substance or any injurious foreign matter is adulterated; or (d) is prepared, preserved, packed or stored under insanitary conditions, commits an offence.’
Additionally, section 14 of the Law states that ‘Any person who labels, sells, packages or advertises any drug, cosmetic, medical device or household chemical in contravention of any regulation made under this Law, or in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive as regards its character, constitution, value, potency, quality, composition, merits or safety, commits an offence.’
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