In the consulting cubicle of Nature’s Hand Therapeutic Centre, one does not have to look too hard to find the documents that “legitimise” the work of “Dr.” Jonathan Ohene Nkunim.
His certificates and three licences from a state regulatory are conspicuous enough to catch the attention of an unconscious eye.
The certificates and licenses were his fortresses when I visited his facility on April 16, 2021. They were the solid rock on which he stood; the reason he did not hesitate to open up to me when I introduced myself, my mission, and broached the first of the two subjects I had gone there to discuss.
Health regulatory bodies often advise patients to keep both eyes wide open when they visit a physician. It can be fatal to shut one’s eyes to unpleasant sights when one visits a health facility, they say.
It is the reason the Health Institutions and Facilities Act, 2011 (Act 829) mandates health facilities to display licences “in a prominent place which is accessible to patients and clients in the premises of the practice.”
Clients seek assurance from the displayed credentials. And the practitioners, such as Jonathan Ohene Nkunim, seek validation from them. But, sometimes, displaying the certificates alone is not enough reason to trust a facility.
Efua saw licenses when she visited Nature’s Hand Therapeutic Centre, but it did not prevent the disturbing “treatment” that eventually resulted in an affair that collapsed her marriage. Suicidal Esi saw them when she visited, but that did not stop her from being “raped” on a massage bed. Stephanie saw those certificates, but they could not insulate her from being sexually abused when she sought treatment.
What the three women and others could not or did not see were the circumstances under which those licences were issued. And whether the practitioner kept within his scope.
Those licences were the reason he was unnerved at the allegation that he was practising without the requisite authorisation. They were the reason he listened carefully and calmly when I broached the subject, without the faintest clue of uneasiness at the suggestion of illegality.
When I was done, he did not speak a word. He started to remove half a dozen certificates and licenses that were neatly framed and hung on the wall in his consulting cubicle.
“Dr” Jonathan Ohene Nkunim’s False Claims
Jonathan had told Stephanie Nortey, the undercover agent The Fourth Estate sent to the facility that he was a medical doctor. He said he completed medical school at the age of 23 and went to China to specialise in neuromuscular practice. He then returned to Ghana to work at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital before setting up his facility in 2018, he claimed.
My checks from the Medical and Dental Council showed that the Council did not have any such name ever licensed as a medical doctor in Ghana.
His age, which varied depending on the age of the woman he wanted to sleep with, did not match the timelines he gave for his education and career journeys.
When I chatted him on WhatsApp in the name of Stephanie, I asked for specific timelines, to which he replied with the following:
Finished SHS 2001
University of Ghana 2002 to 2006
Chandzou [Chengdu University] 2006 to 2009
When I asked him whether the duration of medical school was four years in his days, he said no. That was the first time he claimed he had studied physiotherapy at the University of Ghana, and not medicine. But the admission that he wasn’t a medical doctor, but a physiotherapist, would later prove to be false.
When I asked the hall of residence he had been at the University of Ghana, he named the all-male Commonwealth Hall, before going ahead to say that I sounded like a detective.
“V-mate!” I said, salutation with which members of the hall greet each other.
“Kokookokor,” he responded.
When I asked how he combined physiotherapy and neuromuscular in his practice, Jonathan Ohene Nkunim said he used his expertise in neuromuscular techniques to diagnose his patients but treated them with his expertise in physiotherapy.
His set of skills were rare and very much sought after, he had told Stephanie. He could not stand the jealousy and petty squabbles at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the nation’s biggest hospital, so he left in 2018 to set up his facility.
However, checks at the human resource department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital revealed that no such person had worked in the hospital in the last five years. Neither the name nor the photograph of Jonathan Ohene Nkunim (which they requested) rang a bell to those who were in a position to know if he had worked there.
Dr. Paul Amankonah, the President of the Ghana Physiotherapy Association, told me that name did not ring a bell in the physiotherapy space in Ghana. Dr. Amankonah, who works at the Physiotherapy Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, also said no such person was known to have worked in the department in recent years.
Before I confronted Jonathan with the information from my background checks on him, I took interest in his certificates and licences.
So, they were not new to me when he placed them on the consulting table in front of me and asked that I go through them and satisfy myself that he was both qualified and licensed to practice.
The most advanced certificate that represented his professional qualification was a multi-coloured one purportedly from the Chinese National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. It was by the Chengdu University in China.
The certificate, (R.TCMP) Neuromuscular (Star 4), was awarded to Jonathan Ohene Owoo.
Jonathan Ohene Nkunim explained that his surname used to be Owoo until he changed it to Nkunim. He also explained to me that the neuromuscular programme was up to 12 Stars, but he stopped at the fourth star.
He also had two certificates from two free online programmes—Neurological disorders, and Physical Therapy Aide—awarded to him in June 2020 by Alison. Alison describes itself as “one of the world’s largest free learning platforms for education and skills training.”
Apart from the three certificates, Ohene Nkunim also had three licences from the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), Ghana’s regulatory body for traditional and alternative medicine. On its website, TMPC says it “is not relenting in its determination to brand and create a respectable image for Traditional and Alternative Medicine (TAM) practice in Ghana.”
One of licences the council issued to Jonathan Ohene Nkunim is to enable him to practice as a “Doctor of Alternative Medicine”, while the other gave him the right to practice as a “Herbal Medicine Practitioner”. The third was a licence issued to Nature’s Hand Therapeutic Centre by the Traditional Medicine Practice Council.
I Lied About My Credentials
“Dr.” Jonathan Ohene Nkunim does not tell his clients what kind of “doctor” he is. On social media and in some of his official documents, he creates the impression that he is a medical doctor.
He, however, came clean when I confronted him. He told me he was a traditional doctor, which allowed him to use herbal medicine for treatment. He also said he was an alternative doctor, which allowed him to use various forms of therapy for treatment.
“When we talk of therapy, it combines so many things. We have light treatment, electro-pulse treatment, detoxification, physical therapy and massage,” he explained.
“Did you study physio itself, physiotherapy as a course?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
He said when he returned from China, he was not accepted by the Ghana Physiotherapy Association.
“Neuromuscular has no faculty in Ghana. So, when I approached the Ghana Physiotherapy Association, they said they couldn’t place me because what I do is an advanced form of physiotherapy.”
“Did you work at Korle-Bu?” I asked him.
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
“One of your clients told me you said you worked at Korle-Bu—the physiotherapy unit—for two years.”
“I want to get my facts right,” he said after a long pause. “Am I being recorded?” he asked.
I told him I wasn’t recording him, but I had come with a camera crew for an official interview if he wanted to be recorded.
He initially said he would think about it. But after we discussed the sexual abuse of women at his facility, he said a story of that nature would create the impression that he slept with all the women who visited him. It wouldn’t be good for his female clients, he said. So, he declined a recorded interview.
But he continued. And conceded that he had lied about his credentials and work at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Jonathan Ohene Nkunim had also told Stephanie Nortey that he was a medical doctor and later conceded he studied physiotherapy when I chatted him on WhatsApp as Stephanie. When I met him, I asked why he presented himself to his patients as someone he was not.
“I wanted to inspire her [Stephanie] so I lied to her,” he said.
“That you went to the University of Ghana, which is not true?” I asked.
“Yes. Today if she comes…She’s supposed to be here today. I don’t know why she’s not here. When she comes, I’ll tell her that ‘some of the things I said, take it with a pinch of salt’. They’re not true.”
“If you’re telling your patients what is not true—that you have some qualification which you don’t— doesn’t it breach your ethics?”
READ ALSO: The licensed sex predator: A chilling investigative account of a doctor who rapes his clients (Part 1)
He disagreed that he had told them about qualifications he did not have. He said he had lied about schools he had attended, but not his qualifications.
He said he did not attend any university or tertiary institution after he completed senior high school. He had the chance to travel to China, where he did a programme in neuromuscular practice and returned.
He is not a medical doctor as he had claimed to some of his patients. He is not a physiotherapist or licensed to practice it. He has not attended the University of Ghana. And he had not worked at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital as he claimed. He admitted he had lied to impress his female client, The Fourth Estate’s undercover agent.
As of September 2021, Ohene Nkunim said he had between 170 and 200 active patients he was attending to. Asked about the stack of about 500 patients’ folders at his facility, he said those were patients he had treated and discharged.
Some of his clients, he said, were high-profiled Ghanaians, including some politicians.
Traditional Medicine Practice Council’s role in the “fake” license
On April 19, 2021, I wrote to the Registrar of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council. I wanted to confirm that the council had, indeed, issued Jonathan Ohene Nk