Photo: FDB Raids Kingdom Herbal Shops

Plain-clothed gun-wielding men suspected to be police officers, together with officials of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), yesterday stormed one of the several distribution outlets of Kingdom Herbal Centre in the �drug lane� of Okaishie in the Central Business District of Accra and seized a huge consignment of its products. The security operatives ransacked the whole store with the help of potters (Kayayei) who carted away several cartons of herbal drugs into waiting trucks. Yesterday�s operation was led by one Collins Issaka Coffie, an official of the FDB, also said to be the Odododiodoo Constituency Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was said to be in the forefront of the operation with one Christopher. This has therefore compelled political observers to read mischief and political motives into the mid-morning raid. A day earlier (Tuesday), the indiscretion of an official of the (FDB) nearly resulted in fisticuffs between some of its staff and Kwaku Boakye, Managing Director of Frank Paul Venture, manufacturers of local herbal medicine �Yafo Yafo� and Jonathan Amofa of Kingdom Herbal fame. The officials, four in number, had gone to the private residence of Mr Boakye at Nmai Djorn near Adjirigano in Accra for an operation to ostensibly conduct what had been described by head of the FDB�s Post Market Surveillance, Thomas Amedzro, as a �market surveillance� to check the manufacturing premises and the registration status of the products manufactured by the company. This, according to Mr Amedzro who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, was because they were finding it difficult to locate where the company was operating from, though officials of the said company had been advertising and selling their products to the public. For this reason, he said they wanted to make sure that they were following due process since the FDB was required by law not only to certify the products before they get to the market, but also the premises. In their quest to locate the place, the officers, led by one Onasis Mensah, went to Mr Boakye�s private residence. Upon reaching there, they were said to have met a security man who told them Mr Boakye had gone out. They then ordered the security man to open the gate for them to enter which he obliged, out of fear. Subsequently, Mr Boakye said the FDB officials and the supposed National Security operatives asked the security man to open the doors to the various rooms for them to inspect. But this time around, he declined since his boss was not around. The officials then threatened to lock the place up if the security man did not allow them access to the rooms for inspection, compelling him to call his boss. Not long thereafter, Mr Boakye told Daily Guide, one Omanhene Kwabena Asante, a radio presenter at �Hot FM�, an Accra-based private radio station, also called to inform him of the presence of some people who looked like security operatives in front of his house. In the heat of it all, the security man was said to have called Mr Boakye, who was then visiting his ailing friend Jonathan Amofa of Kingdom Herbal fame, in the same vicinity. He therefore rushed back and ushered the officials into his house. There and then, Mr Boakye said they asked him to produce his registration documents for inspection. At this point, the MD of Frank Paul Ventures said he became a bit jittery since a week earlier these same officials of the FDB had raided Mr Amofa�s Kingdom warehouse and seized his products for his supposed inability to renew registration documents. Meanwhile, he said both companies had already filed and paid for the renewal with the FDB pending the issuance of permit and could not fathom what was going on. He said he therefore asked the officials why they did not check on all those documents with the FDB before coming to his house. He said his comments seemed not to have gone down well with one of the officials whose name he gave as Martin. The said Martin got angry and asked whether they (the two companies) thought they could use their ill-gotten wealth which they used in sponsoring various programmes to mess around; and promised to show them where power really lies. The MDs of Frank Paul Ventures Kingdom Herbal Centre have since lodged complaints with the police whilst the FDB has also lodged an official complaint at the police headquarters, according to Thomas Amedzro.