Dr. Alex Bediako Mensah cautioned by National Security

Last Thursday witnessed a Council working to ensure equity amongst its stakeholders. For some time now, certain individuals of some practice groups have ganged up against the new Registrar of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) Dr. Michael Kyeremateng and all they want is his resignation or removal from the Council as Registrar.

The Council has intensified its routine monitoring and inspection of facilities to ensure they are complying with Section 9 (1) of the Traditional Medicine Practice Act 2000, (Act 575) which states that, “A person shall not operate or own premises as a practitioner or produce herbal medicine for sale unless that person is registered in accordance with this Act.” So practitioners who have fulfilled the dictates of Section 9 (1) of the TMP Act 2000 (Act 575) are further required to comply with Section 12 (1,2) of the Act which talks about the renewal of the certificate and license issued to the practitioner by the TMPC.

So, on their routine inspection sometime last year, the Compliance and Enforcement Inspectorate (CEI) team came across a facility, China Natural Herbal Shop at Lapaz owned by one ‘Dr.’ Alex Bediako Mensah. This herbal shop is not licensed while the individual operating the facility is doing so without a certificate. Which are in contravention of Section 9 (1) of the TMP Act 2000, (Act 575).

Upon further investigation in the data base of practitioners and facilities at the Council’s office, it was revealed that, ‘Dr.’ Alex Bediako Mensah has three (3) more facilities across the country whose licenses have expired and this is in contravention of Section 12 (1,2) of the TMP Act 2000 (Act 575). The facilities are, China Natural Herbal Clinic located at Santasi Oteng Nkanfra in the Ashante Region whose license expired in December 2023, China Natural Herbal Clinic (Annex), located at Adjei Kojo, Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region whose license expired in December 2023 and China Natural Herbal Hospital located at ACP Junction, Pokuase, also in the Greater Accra Region with an expired license since March 2024.

So after several notices for renewal were ignored by him, a demand notice was issued at the facility. A lady who claimed to be his wife visited the Council office on his behalf and after a lengthy discussion she left with the assurance of informing the husband to do the needful only for a voice note purported to have been made by ‘Dr.’ Bediako Mensah to the effect that, he has reported the case to the National Security and he has been advised not to pay any money by way of renewals and new registrations to the Council until a new Registrar has been appointed by H.E. John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic,. He therefore advised other practitioners to hold onto any obligation they have to the TMPC to do same.

This was reported to the National Security who then invited him to come and clarify from whom that directive came. ‘Dr.’ Bediako Mensah reported to the National Security office on Thursday, February 6, 2025. When the Deputy Director of Operations Mr. Peter Ndekugri inquired from him where that directive had come from, he mentioned one Baba who was not immediately known to the Deputy Director. However, when the identity of the individual was established, it turned out that, it was a friendly advice given to ‘Dr.’ Bediako Mensah based on an inaccurate information.

To resolve the matter amicably, he was cautioned and directed to write to retract the voice note he circulated and to also do the retraction using the medium by which the audio was circulated and additionally, regularize his operations with the Council. He duly complied with the written retraction and did the voice note retraction as well.

Numo Blafo III,

Head, Corporate Affairs and Public Relations.