A Magistrate of the Abeka District Court, Victoria Ghansah, pronounced judgment on the Mawarko assault case, in which a certain strange stranger in our land, Jihad Chabaan, had the audacity and classical impudence to put a beautiful Ghanaian woman’s face in a pot full of blended pepper. This incident happened at the Abelemkpe branch of the Mawarko Restaurant chain on Sunday, February 26, 2017.
Judge Victoria Ghansah decided that Jihad needs at least nine months to cool down his barbaric temperament.
However, nothing was said about compensating Evelyn Boakye, the innocent victim. Are we being told that such offenses do not require both a fine and jail term? Okay, assuming there is nothing like that in the law books, we must then be mindful of the fact that there were two defendants in this case. And they are Jihad and the corporate body, Mawarko. Jihad has been imprisoned nine months, and that is good news, but not certainly enough for such a crime which could have led to the lady’s death, through choking on hot chili pepper puree. Jihad should have convicted on pre-meditated attempted murder.
Now the Mawarko Restaurant is also to take blame and also found guilty for what happened on the Lord’s Holy Day. And since this corporate entity cannot be put in jailed, except asked to be closed down for a while, I think, in fairness, the Mawarko Restaurant must be made to pay, at least, month’s gross income of all its chain restaurants across the country, as compensation to Evelyn.
It is obvious she will not go back to work there, so she will do with some money to sort things out before deciding what to do to settle into some further education, business or trade.
Such a punitive measure would serve as deterrent to other non-nationals who come here to treat our people as slaves.
Such a punitive measure would encourage many Ghanaian workers, especially ladies, who are working under bondage in these foreign-owned businesses and industries, to come and tell their story. Evelyn Boakye is not the first to be mistreated.
We heard about the sad case of Julius Alabi, a Junior High School (JHS) leaver, who, at eighteen, joined B5 Plus Company Limited, an Indian-owned company, on June 4, 2012 as a casual worker, on a GH¢130 a month salary. Less than a week at work, he was removed from his duty of counting roofing sheets to remove one that was stuck in a machine. While obediently doing so, a certain Dee Jay pressed the reversed button, and all ten fingers of Julius were gone. The company totally neglected him after he was discharged from hospital, during which time he lost his father. His uncle employed a caretaker for him, who charged GH¢200 a month.
The case went to court, and three years later, in December 2015, Julius won justice when the company was asked to pay GH¢4,417,600 for neglecting him; $30,000 for the victim to be fitted with prosthetic fingers, and GH¢100,000 to the victim for the company’s failure to provide protective clothing for the victim to work with.
Evelyn Boakye’s lawyer must now sue for compensation, after carefully studying this judgment on the B5 Plus company case.
Then we hear the lawyers of the defendants claiming that what happened to Evelyn Boakye was an accident. Which means workers’ faces could possibly, or occasionally, enter pots of pepper puree, accidentally. Then this will call for some form of protective clothing which should include masks.
There was also a case of premeditated negligence when we were told that after actually pushing the lady’s face into that huge pot of pepper puree, and using all his strength and might to apply full weight on her while daring anyone to come and rescue the victim, she was locked up and prevented from seeking immediate medical aid for hours. This pre-meditated negligence should not go unpunished.
Mawarko must be made to pay, as compensation to Evelyn, at least one month’s gross income from all its restaurants across the country.
In fact, Mawarko should be penalised some more by being asked to shut down for some time to cool Ghanaians off.
It is now high time for certain things to be put in place, regarding the Ghanaian worker, especially, those in these foreign-owned businesses and industries.
Some of our ladies are sexually abused in such companies, and they can hardly complain, because they could lose their jobs. So they suffer the physical and emotional pain of having to service some foreigner for a pittance, while maintaining that good love relationship with their steady boyfriends or husbands.
It will not be surprising that Jihad might have made several advances at Evelyn, who might have not noticed any or strongly brushed him off. Hence his blind hatred for the lady that drove him to push her face into a pot of pepper puree, and sit on the back of her head for God knows how many minutes.
Now back to this accident plea by the lawyers of the defendants. Unless there is a legal definition of accident which is hidden from the public eyes, because the public is not learned to understand, one does not know where this accident plea arose from.
So an example of the new definition for accident: 1). You push one’s face into a pot of pepper puree and made sure that it remained in the liquid for several minutes. That is an accident.
2). You dared off those who attempted to alert you that you have accidentally pushed a human being’s face into that hot stuff and were coming to rescue the victim. Of course, maybe, in some law books, this is considered an accident when you prevent someone from rescuing another from death.
3). You then dragged the weak and almost collapsing lady, who was deprived off her fair share of oxygen for several minutes, and dumbed her in a store room which itself lacks adequate supply of oxygen, and locked her up for several hours to prevent her from seeking immediate medical attention. And this is also an accident, because you accidentally thought that, the dusty and very dark old store room looked exactly like the Korle Bu Hospital OPD to you.
Some Ghanaians have allowed some foreigners to abuse us and abuse our laws. We recently encountered a shocking video clip of a very young Ghanaian nanny who was beheaded in Saudi Arabia by her host for “allowing” his infant child to fall down from the stairs. And we have here people from that same region, attempting to drown our own in pepper puree, and some say it was an accident.
It is sad when you read and view how our people are treated abroad, and then at home they also get the same ill-treatment from these same people, mostly from the Middle East, India and China. In the case here, such an unacceptable mode of treatment, we are told, should be considered an accident.
As we attempt to revive our economy, we must put measures in place to motivate and protect the Ghanaian worker, especially, those in non-managerial positions.
Our youth work donkey hours and receive very little. For example, those who work in filling stations, at the pump and the mart, go on 24hrs shifts and take home, at most, GH¢300 a month. Since they are made to stay over 24 hours at duty post, it is presumed that they work for twenty-four hours a day, and break for another day and report the next day in an unending circle for as long as they continue to work there. So, in a month of thirty days, they work full fifteen days a month for 360 hours. A same level worker in an 8 to 5 job for five days a week, will work 180 hours a month and take home not less than GH¢500. Going by this rate, the one working in the filling station should take home, at least, GH¢1,000 a month.
And if the 8 to 5 worker does 180 hours, it means he/she would only work full seven and a half days a month, or a quarter of a month. The filling station attendants work fifteen full months and collect GH¢300 as salary.
Even the GH¢300 is relative, because, should the attendant encounter any shortage, it will be deducted from the salary. So, one should not be surprised to take home GH¢40 a month after deduction, or even nothing at all.
The shortages arise from shoplifting and wrong billings for sale of fuel. In the case of the shoplifting, non-existent or malfunctioning CCTV cameras do not capture people who walk into the mart, especially, during busy times, to pinch an item or more.
With a very low income it is impossible for the young worker to effectively plan for his or her future. Most of them would want to study for a profession, and they have to save towards that, but where is the money?
And now, when they secure some job and are paid what looks like a handful of gari, they get harassed, molested, maltreated, tortured and made to swim head down in a pond of hot chili pepper puree.
The Evelyn Boakye case should not be laid to rest until she has been properly compensated and new laws enacted to make foreigners treat their Ghanaian workers with some respect and lots of dignity. Mawarko must be severely disciplined, and Ghanaians must start boycotting its services.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
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