Jihad Chaaban
For fear of being attacked by an angry youth for allegedly dipping the face of a female employee into blended pepper, the Accra Regional Police Command has caged 26-year-old Jihad Chaaban – a Lebanese and supervisor of the Abelemkpe branch of Marwako Restaurant – in cells.
Jihaad, said to be the brother in-law of the owner of the restaurant, after being arrested on February 28, 2017 by the Tesano police, was later granted police enquiry bail to report later for investigations to be concluded.
Meanwhile, he has provisionally been charged by the police on three counts of causing harm, assault and offensive conduct.
He reported yesterday morning at the Tesano police station to be sent to court and since courts were not in session yesterday, he was re-arrested and caged for safety while a new court is allocated to him, according to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, ASP Effia Tenge.
At the police station, Jihaad was said to have apologized for his action but his plea was not taken.
He also issued a letter of apology to the victim but she says she wants the law to take its course.
A section of the Ghanaian public got agitated on hearing the news and has described it as ‘inhuman’ on the part of the supervisor.
A campaign to boycott Marwako chain of restaurants has even been launched on social media following the purported act.
It would be recalled that Jihaad Chaaban reportedly grabbed the head of Evelyn Boakye, the Ghanaian employee, and allegedly dipped her face into blended pepper meant for spicing a full chicken.
After the act, Jihad Chaaban reportedly locked the victim up with the burning and hurting eye and prevented her colleagues from rescuing her from the situation.
The victim, in a statement, said she is an employee of the restaurant at the rice section.
On Sunday, February 26, 2017, when she reported for work, she was asked to join the full chicken department that day.
“While working, one of my supervisors told me to go and blend fresh pepper.
“After blending the first set, I realized that the sound of the blender was not normal, and so decided to turn off the knob and find out what was wrong,” Evelyn narrated.
She revealed that there and then Jihad Chaaban came out and accused her of spoiling the blender.
The victim added, “He [Jihad Chaaban] took the blender, poured the pepper out and put my face into the blended pepper.
A report was later lodged with the police, leading to the arrest of Jihad.
Labour Audit
Meanwhile, the Employment Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has ordered a comprehensive audit into the labour history of Marwako Fast Food.
Mr Baffour Awuah gave this directive when he visited the company to interact with some of the workers.
He said although the police had initiated investigation into the matter, the ministry was also interested in knowing the truth about the incident.
“We are asking our Labour Department to do a labour audit for us to see…I have given them one week within which to get the report to us,” he said.
Mr Baffour-Awuah said the action had been taken by the ministry to address the issue, adding that the owner of the restaurant had condemned the action of the supervisor and promised to support with investigation.
He said the Employment Ministry would be investigating the labour history of the other companies in the country because the Marwako incident might not be an “isolated issue.”
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)