The Court of Appeal in Accra has upheld a High Court judgement which ordered the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to pay over GH¢30 million in damages to Tobinco Pharmaceuticals for the unlawful confiscation and destruction of the company's products.

It held that the actions of the FDA, under the leadership of its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Stephen Opuni, unlawfully detained Tobinco’s drugs, occasioned losses, and caused damage to the reputation and business of the company.

Details of the ruling shared by thelawplatform.online showed how the judges, who unanimously ruled on the matter, condemned Dr Opuni’s actions.

They accused the former FDA Executive Director of abusing his powers through his decision to confiscate the properties of the company as well as cause the arrest of its leadership.

The court also accused Dr Opuni of deliberately taking steps to hurt Tobinco, which was founded by Samuel Amo Tobbin.

“The evidence establishes clearly that the appellant's former CEO, Dr Opuni, exercised his powers not in an honest attempt to fulfil the appellant's statutory functions, but deliberately, with knowledge that his conduct was an abuse of his office, and with the intent to injure the Respondent's business,” part of the ruling read.

The judges also stated that Dr Opuni declared Tobinco’s products fake without justification.

The court also held that the former CEO of the authority wrongly barred the importation of the company’s products.

"The evidence establishes clearly that the appellant's former CEO, Dr Opuni, exercised his powers not in an honest attempt to fulfil the appellant's statutory functions, but deliberately, with knowledge that his conduct was an abuse of his office, and with the intent to injure the Respondent's business. The following facts, cumulatively and individually, demonstrate this:

i. The public declaration that the Respondent's drugs were "fake" and that they may have "killed children", without any scientific analysis and without any basis for the child deaths allegation;

j. The arrest of the Respondent's CEO and the CEO of Bliss GVS and their detention at the BNI, followed by coercion to sign declarations attesting that their medicines were fake, declarations that were then circulated to all media houses;

k. The sweeping lock-up of warehouses and detention of containers without notice and without distinguishing between compliant and non-compliant goods;

l. The retroactive application of the Bliss GVS ban to goods already lawfully imported;

m. The unexplained refusal to process re-registration applications, without communicating reasons as required by law;

n. The direct personal threat by Dr Opuni to collapse the Respondent's business (uncontradicted testimony by PW2); and

o. The subsequent registration of the very same products previously labelled 'fake' once Dr Opuni left office, a fact that speaks to the conclusion that the initial regulatory stance was personal rather than principled."

BAI

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