Herbalist Runs From Sex Claims Against FDB Boss

Madam Adzoa Se Menhyia, owner of the Se Menhyia Herbal Clinic at Kasoa, in the Central Region, who recently claimed that her refusal to cede to sexual demands from the Chief Executive of Food and Drugs Board (FDB) led to the banning of 24 of her herbal concoctions by the FDB, is now distancing herself from the publications made in the Daily Guide and Daily Searchlight newspapers.

According to the herbalist, also known as Mrs. Ellen Semenhyia Acheampong, she only told the newspapers that she turned down a request from Dr. Stephen Opuni for a meeting with him outside his office to discuss the certification of her herbal drugs by the FDB, but never said that the FDB boss wanted to have sex with her as reported by the two newspapers.

Her denial was contained in a statement of defence filed on her behalf by Mr. Emmanuel E. Annan, a copy of which is in the possession of The Herald. She explained that as a married woman she could not grant Dr. Opuni’s request for a meeting in a secret location and insisted that the discussion should rather take place in his office at the FDB in Accra.

In any case, she said the meeting with the FDB’s boss in his office took place without any other person present and that he is, therefore, not entitled to his claim of defamation.

Interestingly, Madam Se Menhyia was, for the second time, not at the Fast Track High Court last week Tuesday, when the defamation case against and the two newspapers was heard. Her lawyers were also absent. Daily Guide and Daily Searchlight newspapers, however, were represented by Godfred Yeboah and Ken Stephen Anku, respectively.

His Lordship Denis Adjei suggested an out-of- court settlement of the matter between the newspapers and Dr Opuni as the three need each other in their scheme of operations. He, therefore, adjourned the case to May 4, by which time the two lawyers would have met Dr. Opuni and his lawyer, Mr. Eric Atieku, over the out –of- court settlement.

Madam Se Menhyia defence is that she once honoured an invitation by Dr. Opuni to see him in his office apparently in connection with application for certification of her herbal drugs. Upon meeting Dr. Opuni in his office, he informed her that there had been some problems regarding the certification of some of the drugs she submitted for certification.

She said that Dr. Opuni further said that, he would however, not like to create problems for her on condition that she meets with him somewhere outside his office.

She then informed Dr. Opuni that she could not honour that request since she was a married woman, and insisted that they discussed everything in his office.

Madam Se Menhyia claimed that the FDB boss was not pleased with her response, he became disappointed and unhappy and, drove her out of his office. He further threatened to destroy her business, including the operation of her clinic, she added.

She further claimed that true to his threats, Dr. Opuni immediately thereafter went on air, on several media networks, and made negative and disparaging utterances regarding the efficacy and potency of the drugs she submitted for certification.

The said negative and disparaging publication Dr. Opuni about her herbal drugs, she said attracted wide media interest and, several media houses called on her for reaction to his assertions.

In her reaction, Madam Se Menhyia said she narrated what transpired between her and Dr. Opuni in his office, and that her narration of what transpired in Dr. Opuni’s office was true in substance and in fact, and made without malice or ill will.

On an earlier appearance in court, the Fast Track High Court threw out a pre-trial hearing request by Mr. Yeboah Dame not to include the Daily Guide Newspaper in a joint libel case filed against it and the Daily Searchlight Newspaper by the FDB.

It ordered Daily Guide Newspaper to file its defence in the substantive case, and appear before it 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.

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, in his ruling, agreed with counsel for the FDB boss that the heading of the story, as published by the Daily Guide Newspaper, cannot be divorced from the content of the article and, therefore, the paper ought to answer the case of defamation filed against it by Dr. Opuni.

The married woman and a mother of five is said to have told the Daily Guide at her Kasoa residence on January 24, this year, that she was invited by the FDB boss on August 15, 2010, over the registration of her herbal medicine and, 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 FDB.

She said after negotiations, the amount was reduced to GH¢10,000, which she paid on the spot for her freedom. She claimed that since that incident, she had not known peace, although she had tendered in her application for the registration of all of her products. Only two out of the 14 were certified while the rest are awaiting examination.

Maame Semanhyia said that she was, therefore, surprised that after a short while, the FDB was finding faults with her in order to run her business down because she refused to cede to sex demands from the FBD boss, she maintained that all of her 14 products had been duly registered with the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong Akuapem.

On his part, The FDB boss, denied the sex claims, and insisted that Madam Se Menhyia had made up the story 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.

He said all the products had been 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 in the products.

The high levels of microbial contamination could cause very serious health hazards, he pointed out, noting that, that 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, Dr. Opuni explained.

Madam Semanhyia was later arrested and is currently on trial for selling unwholesome and unregistered medicine to the public.