On 31 January 2017, roughly three weeks after President Nana Akufo-Addo took office and almost five clear years after the then-Stephen Opuni-led Food and Drugs Authority ((FDA) seized and destroyed tonnes of alleged "fake and substandard" pharmaceutical products from Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, the law firm of the president, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., representing Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, wrote to the FDA to inform the regulatory body of its client's decision to head to court over the long-dead matter.

The letter addressed to the FDA CEO, Dr Delese Darko, among other things, accused Dr Opuni of hiding behind "sinister motives" in a "preposterous" manner, to label Tobinco Pharmaceuticals' drugs as "fake" despite the company having satisfied all the requirements and sanctions of the regulator, including paying GHS40,000 for a registration lapse, and another GHS40,000 for importing Gsunate plus suppository into the country "without clinical trials".

Additionally, the president's law firm accused the FDA of unjustifiably and deliberately refusing to allow some of the pharmaceuticals at the port to be cleared and subsequently seizing and burning them.

The lawyers also complained of harassment of Tobinco officials as well as the arrest and detention of their client's CEO Samuel Amo Tobin together with the MD of his Indian partner company Bliss GVS Pharma, who had flown down at the instance of Dr Opuni for a meeting over the matter.

The letter said Dr Opuni played a "savage" role in the harassment of its client and his business partner and recalled how the former FDA boss had threatened at one of their meetings to "bring our client's CEO down" and also "finish him like Semanhyia."

Tobinco's lawyers accused the FDA and Dr Opuni of acting in "malice" and "illegally."

The letter accused the Opuni-led FDA of having led a "campaign" of "unfounded vilification, caprice, political victimisation and witch-huntung."

The lawyers complained that the "illegal and unconstitutional" actions of the Opuni-led FDA caused their client "irremediable damage" and noted that the same products that were labelled as "fake" under the tenure of Dr Opuni were subsequently registered by the same FDA under new CEO Hudu Mogtari following Dr Opuni's exit.

The law firm concluded that its client was, thus, heading to court to seek redress in connection with all the "clearly illegal" actions of the FDA.

"Our client, being justifiably aggrieved by the brute violation of its rights and wanton destruction of its products as captured in the letter in the letter of January 31, 2017, has instructed us to formally inform you of its intention to institute legal action against the Republic pursuant to the State Proceeding Act, 1998 (Act 555) claiming the sums of $16,011,767.53 or its equivalent in cedis together with interest thereon at the prevailing bank rate as well as the sum of GHS708,714.35 together with interest thereon at the prevailing bank rate since 2014. Our client shall also seek other cliams for damages and costs of litigation on a full indemnity basis."

The high court, a few days ago, exonerared Tobinco Pharmaceuticals of any wrongdoing and awarded a cost of GHS94 million in its favour.