Tension At National Lotteries

Tension at the Head Office of the Department of National Lotteries (DNL) in Accra has reached its peak, following a move by the management who have engaged the services of K.9 Security Services to forcefully throw out some of its former employees still occupying the DNL flats in Accra.

The Independent gathered that the affected ex-workers which include some retired and transferred staffs numbering thirty-four who claimed to have worked with the DNL spanning between 20 and 30 years, have vowed to resist the eviction bid through every possible means, including seeking legal intervention at the courts.

Briefing the press at Adenta, the spokesperson for the group, Mr Joyce Hammond, lamented that the infrastructure was acquired through the welfare fund contributions of workers, with the initial agreement that upon retirement, workers would be given the first option of buying them. She also maintained that twenty-four of the affected workers were transferred to other public services in the wake of the Civil Service restructuring exercise a couple of months ago, in which case they continued to serve the nation in their various capacities as civil servants.

Mr Hammond pointed out that early in the year petitions were sent to the Head of Civil Service, Ministry of Finance and to President J.A. Kufuor through the Castle by the group, when it came to their notice that DNL was initiating a move to evict them, adding that they were still expecting responses from the various quarters to which they had appealed to have their grievances looked into.

She stated that they would resist any attempt to evict them form the flats, adding that their occupancy is legitimate and explaining that DNL has turned down their request to refund to them their welfare contributions to enable them arrange for alternative accommodation. "We have toiled enough day and night DNL and do not expect them to treat us this way by giving us this raw deal," she said, noting "if we allow this to happened then we will be condoning injustice that is always meted out to the vulnerable in society."