Three former workers of Rana Motors accuse chairman of assault
Three former workers of Rana Motors have accused the chairman of the engineering company, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Odaymat, of allegedly assaulting them with his sons, Mr Issam Odaymat, the chief executive of the company, and Gassim Odaymat, one of the executives of the company.
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The workers, Augustine Bonyeh, a supervisor; Eric Mensah Tibouah and Salam Salifu, who were both store keepers, said they were assaulted when they were accused of stealing some items in the company’s store at Tarkwa, where Rana Motors offers supporting services to the Ghana Manganese Company.
However, the Head of Marketing of Rana Motors, Mr Kojo Damenyah, has refuted the claim, saying the employees were being prevented from running away by some staff when they were being questioned about the theft of goods worth more than $300,000.
Assault
Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic, Mr Augustine Bonyeh, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said on Tuesday, October 6, 2015, he arrived at work from a short leave when he was confronted by his boss with reports of the under-invoicing and over-invoicing of items at the store.
When they refuted the claims, they were told to hand over all property of the company in their possession and, subsequently, sacked.
Two weeks later, they were called by one of the bosses of the company, Mr Soumen Roy, and asked to come to Accra to meet the chairman and his sons for a resolution of the matter, Mr Bonyeh said.
They arrived in Accra on October 19, 2015 and told to wait for their head of department, Mr Jaydeep Bhachanjee; they thus waited all day until the next day, October 20, 2015, without seeing any of the bosses.
They then decided to return to their homes and some minutes into the return journey, they were called to came back to the offices of Rana Motors on the Graphic Road.
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This time, their head of department, Mr Bhachanjee, had arrived and they were taken to a basement in the building.
Mr Boyneh said they were told that when they were sacked an inventory was taken of the items in the shop and it had been discovered that goods worth more than $300,000 had been stolen.
His response was to ask who had done the stocktaking, as the practice was for the head of department, who was the best person apprised of all the information on items, to take stock with them.
He said as soon as he asked the question, Mr Odaymat and the sons started assaulting them with their fits and chairs.
Mr Bonyeh said in the cause of the assault, he passed out and regained consciousness only to find a policeman tapping him on the shoulder to follow him to the Central Police station, where they were kept for three days and released.
The case was later transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the headquarters of the Ghana Police Service.
Response
Mr Damenyah for his part said the three were being questioned to ascertain the whereabouts of goods stolen from the warehouse.
In the course of questioning, he said, the three attempted to bolt and they were prevented by some staff.
He also refuted claims that the three had been taken to a basement, saying that they were being questioned in an office.
Writer's email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh