Lotto operators appeal against court's decision

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 (Page 31)

THE Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA) and six others are challenging the Accra Fast Track High Court’s refusal to stay the execution of its judgement which outlawed private lotto operations in the country at the Court of Appeal.
According to the appellants, their appeal against the ban on private lotto operations in the country had good grounds of success and for that matter they would suffer irreparable loss if the court’s ruling was not stayed.
“The refusal of the instant application will render over 500,000 people jobless when no compensation has been made available to cater for their redundancy,” an application for injunction pending the determination of the appellants’ appeal stated.
The GLOA and the six others, namely, Obiri Asare and Sons Limited, Rambel Enterprises Limited, Dan Multipurpose Trading Enterprise Limited, Agrop Association Limited, Star Lotto Limited and From-Home Enterprises, filed the application at the Court of Appeal following the refusal of the Fast Track High Court to stay execution of its earlier judgement.
In its ruling on November 4, 2008, the court, presided over by Mr Justice K. A. Ofori-Atta, said the appellants were not able to assert their right to the law of equity.
The appellants had maintained that their rights to free market activity had been impinged upon by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) following the passage of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Act 2006, Act 722.
They, accordingly, filed for stay of execution of the court's decision pending the determination of an appeal against the banning of their operations but the court, after carefully studying the application, dismissed it.
“The dismissal of the earlier application is wrong, improper and ultra vires,” the appellants pointed out and, accordingly, prayed the Court of Appeal to “restrain the respondents from interfering with the work or property rights of the appellants pending the determination of the appeal”.
The appellants had sought to question the constitutionality of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Act 2006, Act 722, and, therefore, prayed for a declaration that the directive from the NLA 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.
But the court held otherwise.
The appellants stated in their motion for stay of execution that the judgement banning their operation was "wrong in law and an improper exercise of discretion”.
According to the plaintiffs, "the subsequent dismissal of our action raises serious questions of law and fact, which will have to be considered by the appellate court".
The Fast Track High Court’s judgement banning private lotto followed an application by the NLA, which prayed the court to dismiss the plaintiffs’ suit on the premise that the Supreme Court had declared the Lotto Act constitutional and, for that reason, there was no basis for the substantive suit to continue at the lower court.