The head of legal affairs at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow, has asked the High Court to halt hearing of her injunction application. 

On Tuesday, her lawyers told the court they had filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal seeking to reverse a ruling against her.

The three lawyers also informed the High Court they had also filed an application at the Court of Appeal seeking to halt proceedings in the High Court. 

This new twist in the impending injunction hearing further stalls the progress of the injunction application, which she filed in November 2020.

The 'Returned bribe' documentary was due for broadcast on JoyNews on November 12, 2020, but Mrs Dapaah-Ntow filed a suit and applied for an injunction to restrain the Multimedia Group, Manasseh Azure Awuni and the CEO of COA Mixture, Professor Samuel Ato Duncan, from proceeding to air the documentary on television. 

The investigative documentary, the radio version of which was aired on Joy FM, revealed a bribery scandal in which Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow was accused of demanding a bribe of $100,000 from the CEO of COA Mixture.

The Multimedia Group said at the time even though she had only applied for injunction and it had not been granted, the station would hold on with airing the documentary until the court determined the matter of the injunction.

However, the injunction hearing has been adjourned many times at the instance of Mrs. Cynthia Dappah-Ntow.

In January 2021, lawyers for Mrs. Dapaah-Ntow had asked the court to reject Manasseh’s entry of appearance and statement of defence because they claimed Manasseh had failed to provide his residential address.

The court dismissed their application, stating among other things that the plaintiff had not had any problems with serving any of the processes on Manasseh, and his address was supplied to the court.

In court today, lawyers for Manasseh and the Multimedia Group led by Samson Lardy Anyenini, repeated their stance that the numerous actions by Mrs. Dapaah-Ntow were only meant to delay the hearing of their own injunction application. 

He argued that there was no rule of law stopping the high court from proceeding with the matter until the Court of Appeal determined the processes filed at the court of appeal.

The judge agreed with the argument but said that out of respect for the court of appeal, he would wait for the outcome of the stay of proceedings. 

Before today’s hearing, lawyers for Mrs Dapaah-Ntow had filed an application to cross examine Manasseh Azure Awuni on the injunction application. However, that didn’t come up because of their announcement that they had filed an appeal to challenge the ruling against her.

The Court of Appeal will decide the application on March 24, 2021.

The high court has adjourned the hearing of the injunction case to March 29, 2021.