How my business partner and I were arrested and detained by NIB over 'fake' drugs - Tobinco boss shares

Samuel Amo Tobbin, Group Chairman of Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited (TPL), has spoken about his traumatic encounter with the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) after his company's medicines were seized in 2013.

Dr. Tobbin detailed his experience working under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Opuni, the former CEO of the FDA, in an interview on Channel One TV on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.

TPL and its Group Chairman were cleared in a statement issued on Sunday, August 11, 2024, of any wrongdoing related to the alleged importation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals into Ghana.

On July 29, 2024, the High Court in Accra, headed by Her Ladyship Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, delivered a ruling that refuted Dr. Opuni's assertions against Tobinco.

The case was filed by Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited on July 19, 2019, alleging that the FDA was misusing its statutory authority and obligations. This marked the start of the judicial war.

Dr. Tobbin recounted their spectacular arrest and subsequent nearly day-long detention in National Intelligence Bureau(NIB) cells, formerly Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) following their arrest on the streets close to the FDA.

He remembered being let out in the evening, but for four days had to report to the NIB office, where they were kept in cells and only let out at night.

Dr. Tobbin deemed the events leading up to their detention as "unfortunate."

“It was rather unfortunate that in 2013 that thing happened to us. Dr. Stephen Opuni happened to be a short-time friend. I knew him when he assumed office as the CEO of the FDA. In our industry, all the CEOs become our friends automatically.

“We’re friends, but one day he called me and I went there. He complained that we had imported a fake Gesunate Plus, a suppository for children, and that we wanted to kill children. I was shocked, and he was so furious, he was annoyed, beating his table and saying he would bring me down.

“All his managers and departmental heads were in the conference room. He was so annoyed, so furious. So, I also responded and told him, no, you can’t, you can’t do anything against me. I haven’t done anything. So, it was a bit of a misunderstanding.

“By then, I was with my Indian partner. He invited him to come. When we were moving out of the premises of the FDA, the main streets of the FDA, we saw some people in a car, and then they crossed our car in a Rambo style. They opened their car and opened ours too and brought us out.

“They said you have to be quiet, anything you say will be used against you at the law court. Those threats. We were quiet, and they put us in their car, then they drove us to BNI, now NIB. They sent us to their office at 37. We were locked up there almost the whole day. Then in the course of the evening, we were released.

“The next day they asked us to come, the third day they asked us to come. We were locked till late evening every day when we went,” he said as reported by citinewsroom.com.

Dr. Tobbin disclosed that they were forced to sign a document admitting that fake goods were brought into the nation.

“On the fourth day, they brought a letter for us to sign in order to be released. They wrote that we admit to importing fake products. One was on my letterhead and another on my partner’s letterhead. Because we wanted our freedom, we thought that we would be released.

“I signed and my friend too signed. Little did we know that this guy [Dr. Stephen Opuni] wanted those documents to publish that we have admitted that indeed we brought those products.

“Amazingly, from that time, the whole thing started. We saw that when we stay quiet, this guy will destroy both companies and my life. A company that I have built from infancy, hawking on the streets, building it gradually to that level. And at that time we had about over 700 staff for Tobinco alone. So, when it happened like that, we also started moving out to the media. We had to tell our story for people to know that what was brought out was not right,” the Tobinco Group chairman said.

KA/EK