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The battle lines may have been drawn and the stage is now set for perhaps the trial that will test the country�s legal system pitting a giant pharmaceutical company against the Ghana Police Service. This follows a demand for an apology from the police by lawyers of the Kinapharma officials. But the police administration has so far been adamant in their refusal to apologize, insisting that it operated within the remit of the law when its operatives conducted a search within one of the warehouses of the Pharmaceutical Company. Reacting to an earlier press conference held by the police in Accra today, where the Director of Police CID, DCOP Frank Adu Poku told journalists that the police owes them no apology, the General Manager of Kinapharma Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Mr. Eshun Nuamah Famiyeh, in an interview with PEACEFM News, stressed that they �are not disputing the right by the police to conduct investigations into allegations, especially allegations bordering on illicit drug trade.� However, he said what they found worrisome was the hurried manner the police drew conclusions about the incident even when field tests had proven inconclusive. �What stopped them from awaiting the final results of the analysis of samples being tested before rushing to make it public?� Mr Nuamah Famiyeh asked. DCOP Adu Poku is reported to have said at the press conference that though the Police Service has learnt useful lessons from the Kinapharma case, will apply them in their future operations, their conduct was very professional. �Our conduct in as much as the Kinapharma issue is concerned was handled professionally. It was not capricious, it was not malicious, it was done professionally,� DCOP Adu Poku added. But the remark seems to have incurred the displeasure of Kinapharma officials with Mr. Nuamah Famiyeh questioning the professionalism of the security operatives who carried out the raid that later turned out to be a hoax. �Wherein lies their professionalism when they failed to come along with the required equipments to carry out tests�Wherein lies their professionalism if by their actions (blowing the sirens of 14 vehicles), people got to know what happened. They came along with 45 security operatives and there were no journalists present �so if the press later got wind of it who do we blame? We�The cocaine dealers?� he asked. �We�re not saying that they can�t carry out operations�but the process, the actions you take, the things you say to the people, the things you say about the people before you know whether there is something or not, those are the issues we�re talking about. So if you say, in the process you�ve learnt lessons, if you claim in the process there was no malice intended, if you say but in the process, there was no cocaine, have you not erred? When an action produces unintended consequences which are negative, that is when you offer an apology,� Mr. Famiyeh added. Meanwhile, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) is calling on government to open an inquiry into the police�s handling of a case in which officials of pharmaceutical company Kinapharma were picked up on suspicion of possessing substances suspected to be cocaine. The AGI said government must investigate the matter, particularly �the way and manner in which the police action was conducted and leaked to the media before any evidence had been gathered.� In a press statement issued by the association in Accra and signed by its president, Dr Oteng Gyasi, the AGI said the investigation is �required in view of the fact that the company is a leading manufacturer and exporter of pharmaceuticals which has built a credible brand over the years.� �Such a brand is of benefit not only to the company but to the country as a whole. Any action which has the potential to destroy the brand should require adequate minimum evidence.� It said members of the association �are concerned about such arbitrariness in imputing serious criminal conduct to businesses without basis.�