NATIONAL LOTTO AUTHORITY RESTRAINED BY COURT

AN Accra High Court today granted an interlocutory injunction filed by the Ghana Lotto Operators Association and six others to restrain the National Lottery Authority (NLA) from interfering with the property rights or lotto operating business of those concerned.
However, according to the court, the order would be in force for one month during which the registrar of the court should take steps to refer the matter to the Supreme Court for determination.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Anthony Abadah said the order would elapse after the one month whether the matter had been referred to the highest court of the land or not .
According to the court, the outcome of the case in the Supreme Court would guide it in its decision in the case because the issue of constitutionality had been raised by the NLA.
The plaintiffs including Obiri Asare and Sons Limited, Rambel Enterprise Limited, Agrop Association Ltd, Star Lotto Ltd and From-Home Enterprises filed the interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant from “interfering with the property rights or lotto operating business of the plaintiffs pending the final determination of this matter.”
The matter was dealt with by a High Court in September last year, which referred the parties to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs sought a declaration that the directive from the National Lottery Authority to private lotto operators to surrender machines or equipment used for the operation of lottery to the Director-General by August 14, 2007 was unconstitutional, illegal and unreasonable.
Consequent to the order, they want an order to set aside that directive and a further order to restrain the NLA from “unlawfully, unconstitutionally or unreasonably interfering with the property rights of the plaintiffs.”
The plaintiffs maintain that the National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722), which outlawed the operations of lotto business by private lotto operators, infringes the constitutionally guaranteed right of the private lotto operators to free economic activity.
According to them, the creation of the National Lottery Authority to take over and monopolise the operation of the lotto business in Ghana infringed the constitutional injunction to the government to ensure a pronounced role of the private sector in the economy.
The plaintiffs, in their statement of claim, said they had been in private lotto operating business since 1989 and currently had a large number of employees and independent agents who conduct business for them or assist them in the operation of their lotto business.
According to them, the NLA in July advertised in the media about its establishment and said it was the only body that was mandated under the Act to operate lotto business in the country.
Plaintiffs contend that they had their own marketing agents and could not be easily relegated to the position of lotto marketing agents.
The advertisement, they claimed, also directed all persons, who before Act 722 came into force had their own machine or equipment for lottery business to surrender such equipment to the Director-General of NLA before August 14.
“The machines or equipment in question are our own property acquired with our own resources. We do not only have assets but also liabilities that cannot be severed from the assets,” they contended.
To them, the NLA did not negotiate with them as stipulated by Act 722 regarding the machines or equipment .
The plaintiffs said they could neither be compelled to surrender their property to the NLA nor can the defendant compulsorily acquire their property without prior agreement as to compensation and other consequence.