The Kitchen Supervisor at the Ablenkpe Branch of Marwako, Bernard Opoku, has defended the Restuarant’s Supervisor, Jihad Chabaan, who has been accused of dipping an employee’s face in hot pepper.
Jihad has been accused of locking up the 25 year-old with the burning and hurting eyes, preventing her other worried colleagues from helping her.
Speaking exclusively to Citi News’ Philip Ashon, Bernard Opoku, defended his Supervisor, saying “It is not anything bad that happened. We normally shop for fresh pepper for our chicken and she is at the rice department and that day there was pressure at the place so I asked her to prepare the fresh pepper and I went back to the restaurant to do other things. Within 35 to 25 minutes, I heard the noise …According to the girls they said the man poured the thing[pepper] inside her face but I am not sure he poured it inside her face.”
“…Getting to 7 to 8, the girl wanted to leave so one of the Supervisors asked the girl to go to the hospital and bring the bill. ..The following day, the girl was here and closed at the normal time then on Tuesday, she did not come so it is not anything serious. He did not intentionally pour the pepper inside her face. It has not happened in this company before and I have not witnessed something like that.”
Click on audio to listen to Mr. Opoku
The victim’s story
But the victim, who recounted her ordeal to Citi News, said: “It was on Sunday, I went to work so after the rain stopped, I was at my department and one Supervisor called me to go and help someone to blend fresh pepper because there was pressure so I went to the Rice department . While I was blending the pepper, the blender was making noise …Then all of a sudden Mr . Jihad appeared and started shouting on me and insulting me, asking me whether I did not know I was destroying the blender , then I told him: ‘Mr. Jihad it is just fresh pepper.’ Before I could open my mouth again, he put my face inside the blender and when I tried taking my face from blender, the pepper split into my eyes and my face…All I could do was to cry.”
Marwako suspends Lebanese supervisor for ‘assaulting’ Ghanaian worker
The claim by the Ghanaian supervisor comes at a time when management of the Restaurant announced the suspension of the Lebanese in question.
Marwako in a statement said it deeply regrets the incident and assured that it did not condone the actions of the suspended supervisor.
“Management assures its clients and the general public that it does not and will never condone mistreatment of its workers and therefore condemns in no uncertain terms the alleged assault.”
The case, which is being handled by the police, has generated a lot of public interest and has raised many concerns about the treatment meted out to Ghanaians in various companies own by their foreign nationals.
Confirming the incident to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, ASP Effia Tenge, said Jihad has been arrested and granted a police enquiry bail as investigations continue.
She also added that, the victim has been given some medical forms to seek medical treatment.
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