A Suffolk County Corrections Officer from Nigeria says one of his colleagues within the Massachusetts department responded with a racist message after he engaged in a political discussion on Facebook.
The alleged post directed at Platini Otabor reads in part, "you have no credibility. You defected from your country instead of staying and fighting for democracy."
The post goes on to say, "That's the problem with you transplants, you can't fix your own country but tell us how to run ours with your viruses."
“Telling a colleague to go back where he came from, you know to say immigrants bring our viruses here? Someone like that shouldn’t be in a position to be in charge of other people,” said Mohammed Missouri, the executive director of Jetpac.
The diversity-driven civic engagement organization is calling for the alleged social media poster, who they say is a sheriff's department employee, to be terminated.
"He's distraught," Missouri said of Otabor. "Experiencing racism from your colleagues like this is a very difficult thing. It's hard enough as it is to experience it form other people, but to have to go into a work environment where you know someone feels like that about you, that's really tough."
The sheriff's department said in a statement on Twitter that it is investigating the social media posts and any personal interactions that may have occurred.
"First thing on Friday morning, I spoke with the employee to reaffirm the Department's commitment to ensuring a safe and healthy work environment free from harassment and discrimination for all employees and inmates," Assistant Superintendent Bill Sweeney said in the statement.
Following the investigation, the department will take appropriate action for any policy violations committed, Sweeney said.
