Information reaching the Daily Guide newspaper indicates that Maame Adjoa Se Menhyia, the Kasoa-based herbalist, might be using the media to settle personal scores with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Stephen Opuni, as a police source has rubbished her allegations of arrest and detention under the orders of the FDB CEO.
Dr. Stephen Opuni has flatly denied the sex allegations by Maame Se Menhyia of Se Menhyia Herbal Clinic. The 45-year-old herbalist caused a stir on Monday when she accused Dr. Opuni of witch-hunting her because she refused to satisfy his sexual desires, adding, that was why the FDB boss sought to disgrace her by banning her herbal products, thereby running her clinic down.
But Dr. Opuni has, through his counsel from Deleric Law Consult, vehemently denied the said sex allegations leveled against him by the 45-year-old mother of five.
A statement issued by the law firm said the newspaper publications on the issue portrayed their client (Dr. Opuni) as “a dishonest and fraudulent person who used his position to demand sex from women who appear before him in the course of his official duty.” “Our client totally denies the said publications,” the lawyers said.
The police source at the Narcotics Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters told DAILY GUIDE that Maame Se Menhyia lied when she told journalists that she was detained for a day in the cells of the CID Headquarters in Accra.
According to the police source, she spent an estimated four hours at the charge office, after which she was granted bail. “She was arrested in her home and not in the office of the FDB boss as she claimed,” the source said.
Maame Se Menhyia told journalists last Monday at her residence that somewhere in August 2010, she was invited to the office of the FDB boss, where Dr. Opuni subtly arranged for her arrest.
She alleged that she was detained in the cells of the CID Headquarters where she spent the night and was made to pay a sum of GH¢10,000.00, by the FDB, as a punitive measure against her for administering unwholesome and unlicensed products to her clientele.
However, police sources at the Narcotics Unit who were part of the arresting officers said Maame Se Menhyia was arrested in her home. “The detectives brought her to the CID Headquarters at about 3:20pm and she was bailed at about 7:00pm.” “The herbalist for that matter could not say she was arrested at Dr. Opuni’s office and was detained the whole day,” the source stated.
The herbalist last Monday was on air alleging that Dr. Opuni sought to run her clinic down because she refused to have sex with him, an allegation that drew most of the major media houses to her Kasoa residence in the Central Region.
She told pressmen at her residence that Dr. Opuni allegedly invited her to his office through an unnamed go-between.
When she arrived in his office, she claimed, the FDB CEO initially said he had not sent for her but while she sought to leave, he allegedly called her back and dropped the bombshell. “I want us to take a nice day off to relax in a hotel and have fun,” she disclosed amongst other embarrassing statements.
Dr Opuni’s lawyers have stated, among other things, that “our client totally denies the said publications. Our client further says that he finds it difficult to imagine what might have actually motivated you to engage in publishing the said offensive articles about him when you knew very well that there is no iota of truth in all that you have published.”
Meanwhile, the allegation that the FDB was unnecessarily harassing Maame Se Menhyia did not stop FDB officers from carrying out its lawful mandate.
A number of them were said to have stormed the offices of the Se Menhyia Herbal Clinic and sought to seize the said unlicensed and unwholesome products to ensure their destruction. According to a press statement by the FDB, out of the fourteen products manufactured by Se Menhyia Clinic, only two were registered and certified by the FDB.
The board said seven other products which were under examination in their laboratory were detected to contain high levels of yeast and moulds including other toxics dangerous for human consumption, a situation which necessitated their ban.
However, Maame Se Menhyia has maintained that the ban was due to the fact that she refused to yield to the board’s CEO’s sexual advances.
She told newsmen the FDB boss sought to disgrace her and thereby run her business down just because “I said no to his sexual desires”, amidst sobs and curses.
Editor’s Note:
Following the latest development, Daily Guide unreservedly retracts the allegations made against the FDB boss and subsequently apologizes.
Source: D-Guide
