FDA ‘Bribe’ Lawyer Receives Ghc2000 Dirty Slap From Appeals Court

Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow, the Lawyer for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) who was allegedly caught in a video demanding bribe from the manufacturers of herbal-based immune boosters, COA FS Mixture, was today slapped with Ghc2000 cost by the Appeals Court for wasting the court’s time with ineptitude and strange delays.

Even though she has sued the award-winning investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni and the Multimedia Group over the airing of a documentary in which she was allegedly caught on tape demanding the bribe, she who is the Plaintiff is pussyfooting over the case.

The Court asked the embattled lawyer who is likely to be disbarred if she loses the case that under normal circumstances, it is Defendants who employ delay tactics to slow down the inevitable and so how come she the plaintiff, in this case, is rather the one wasting everybody’s time?

As part of the delays, her legal team had invoked the jurisdiction of the Appeals Court on the basis of a dead law, according to reports.

Lawyer Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow is in court with Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Multimedia Group Ltd and Prof. Ato Duncan, manufacturer of COA FS Mixture after a tape emerged featuring her voice demanding a bribe from the COA FS manufacturer.

It would be recalled that in response to the first wave of the COVID-19, the manufacturers of COA FS had announced that their solution was an immune booster that could help the body fight the virus.

The announcement had been hailed as welcome news, but just as quickly as the announcement was made, the FDA announced that tests on the COA FS showed it was infested with Escherichia Coli (E-Coli).

On the basis of this, the product was withdrawn from the market last year.

However, in December of 2020, news emerged that the people at the FDA had called the manufacturer and demanded bribe as a precondition to approving the COA FS. Prof. Samuel Ato Duncan would reveal that the FDA Lawyer had demanded bribe for herself and the head of the Authority, Delese Mimi Darko.

When he proposed to pay US$200,000, Lawyer Cynthia Dapaah who had allegedly sought the bribe on behalf of her Madam and herself had said the money was too small. She would also not accept cheques, making Prof. Ato Duncan load cash of Ghc600,000 in the boot of his car to meet her at GIMPA.

Later, the FDA Lawyer would lead him to a dirt road where the cash was loaded into her car boot. However, Prof. Ato Duncan was secretly recording everything.

In the afternoon that Joy FM aired the radio broadcast entitled, “returned bribe”, she sued Joy FM, Manasseh Azure Awuni and Prof. Duncan alleging she had been defamed. 

In November last year, she filed a motion for an injunction seeking to stop TV broadcasts of the investigative piece.

But the defendants filed documents in opposition asking the court to dismiss the suit on grounds that the motion for an injunction is baseless.

Since then her legal team has made several attempts for the court to reject processes filed for Manasseh Azure insisting he cannot be entertained because he failed to provide his residential address.

However, the High Court threw her out saying she has not encountered any difficulties serving processes on Manasseh Azure or his lawyers who also represent The Multimedia Group.

She appealed the High Court decision at the Appeals Court. But while at the Appeals Court, she also prayed the court to halt the ongoing trial until the appeal has been decided.

But just when her lawyer was arguing the motion for stay of proceedings, lawyers for Manasseh Azure and the Multimedia Group raised an objection saying the motion was grounded on a dead law because the jurisdiction of the court was improperly invoked.

The court of appeal panel agreed to compel a striking out of the motion. The lawyers for Mrs Dapaah-Ntow are expected to file the motion in the High Court.

The Court slapped her with Ghc2, 000 costs.