21 GPC Workers Ejected

?After Legally Owning Houses For 39 Years

Twenty One ex-workers of the Tema branch of Ghana Publishing Corporation (G.P.C.) who have been ejected from the very houses they legally acquired through high-purchasing, have petitioned President J. A. Kufuor to save them from disgrace and humiliation.

According to the ex-GPC workers, some disgruntled members of the Company have vowed to make life uncomfortable by ejecting them from their legally acquired houses after they had spent their lives in serving the nation. Speaking to THE SUN at Tema last Tuesday Mr. A.E.

Adusei alias (Paapa), one of the affected ex-workers noted that, even though there was a court ruling in favour of GPC the reality on the ground does not support the court ruling. ?As a result if the President does not step in to save the situation, severe injustice would be meted out to us after the meritorious service we rendered to the nation all these years?, he said in-between tears. He said, after serving the nation and also legally acquiring houses from the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) through the high-purchase system, their belongings were thrown out of their homes on December 6, last year by hired thugs from Ashaiman with the support of the Tema Police. According to him the operation was carried out under the influence of Mr. J.C. Nkrumah, who tags himself, acting general manager of GPC, and with the active connicance of one Isaac Ahetor in full operation.

He stated that in 1969, TDC allocated 44 houses to staff of GPC on a high-purchase scheme. Mr. Adusei continued that as a result an arrangement made between GPC and TDC, the beneficiary staff who eventually became landlords underwent deduction of percentages of their salaries to purchase the facility. Adusei said, along the line it was discovered that GPC wrongly deducted 26% from their salaries for sometime without paying it to TDC until 1979, when the anomaly was corrected by the AFRC Housing Committee, after the affected staff had filled a petition to that effect. After rectification in February 1988 to 1989, TDC wrote to inform them that they had completed payment and therefore handed ever indentures and ownership deeds to them.

He said after taken possession of ownership, most of them carried out renovation and expansion works. However, they were taken aback when in 1991 the PNDC government officials under Ministry of Information, together with some disgruntled workers of GPC initiated moves to claim the houses they had paid for through high-purchase. According to Adusei, all efforts to get Kofi Totobi Kwakye who was then Secretary of Information to reason with them proved futile because, we had gone on retirement.

?Since the Ministry of Information was bent on ejecting us from the room we have toiled many years to purchase, we took the matter to Court for redress. However our hopes were dashed when Justice Gbadegbe ruled against us, even though we are in possession of legal documents as owners of the houses,? he said in a pathetically low tone.

The ex-GPC workers have therefore appealed to President Kufuor to right the wrongs that were initiated by the notorious PNDC government with the support of Court to save them and their dependents from being thrown out. Holding indentures and documents of the houses, Adusei said the ex-workers? hope apart from God Almighty is President Kufuor, who we trust will definitely work hard at saving us from humiliation and early death after years of meritorious service to the nation.