The Acting Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture in the Western Region, Mr Stephen Sodofu has been accused of blocking the salary of one of his staff who is said to have dual parentage.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GcsQUuw4RdstXcjGPJ5F1KNTDUcII50G”]The staff, Mr Abel Oluwaseum Adeniran whose father is a Nigeria and mother Ghanaian told citifmonline.com that he has lived and schooled in Ghana and subsequently secured a job at the Centre for National Culture in the Western Region as a Cultural Officer at the Shama District.
He said the Acting Director later transferred him from Shama to the Regional capital Sekondi/Takoradi in 2014, where his woes begun.
He lamented that few months after he assumed office, the Acting Director, Mr Sodofu told him to go to Nigeria where his father hails from or he will make his life unbearable for him.
He said Mr Sodofu later in 2014 transferred him to the Bogoso District, which is about three hours’ drive from the regional capital.
Petition to Mr Sodofu
Mr Adeniran further told citifmonline.com that after resuming work at the new place, he requested for a transfer grant but to his utter dismay, none of his letters yielded any results adding that he later petitioned Mr Sodofu to have him returned to the regional capital since he had exhausted all his monies because his transfer grant has not been approved.
A copy of the letter cited by citifmonline.com stated that “I have spent three to four months now at Bogoso and I have exhausted all my available financial resources because there hasn’t been any concrete arrangement for me to move my family and I’ve been unable to secure an accommodation for myself and my family. I hereby wish to request from management for me to resume duty at the Western Regional Office…until these issues are resolved.”
Sabotage
He said after the letter, Mr Sodofu threatened to sabotage him if he does not abort such plans and “he tells me to fly out of the country to go find a job in my father’s country, that I should tender a resignation letter because he prefers to work with a certain set of Ghanaians.”
He added that after the ordeal, the Mr Sodofu went ahead to block his salary in September 2014 lamenting that, he has not received his salary since then.
“After he had unjustly transferred me twice within a year without any due entitlement or any form of allowance in accordance to the collective bargaining agreement. I went on the transfer; I exhausted all my financial resources on the unofficial transfer. He then goes ahead to freeze my salary mischievously through an unknown means even before a letter that stated no reason why my salary is to be frozen to my banker.”
Mr Adeniran further bemoaned how petitions he had sent to the National Commission on Culture to have the issue resolved had received no reply.
He is however calling on government to ensure that the embargo on his salary is removed to enable him cater for himself and his family.
Meanwhile, all attempts to get Mr Sodofu to respond to the allegations have been unsuccessful.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana