The Office of the President has ordered the Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Kojo Andah, to proceed on leave with immediate effect.

A statement signed by the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani over the weekend asked Brigadier Martin Ahiaglo to take over as acting Director General of the Authority.

The statement requested Mr. Andah to report to the Finance Minister for re-assignment after leave.

It is unclear what must have led to this development but it would be recalled some officials of the authority were recently indicted to have been involved in some massive fraud.

The Chronicle reported some months ago that officials at the Information Technology (IT) department of NLA, in connivance with some top management staff, input fake winning numbers, and latter connive with the lotto agents to withdraw the face value of these fake numbers from various banks in the country.

The report stated on Monday, March 25, 2013, one of the agents working for the top NLA officials was arrested at the Kumasi branch of the National Investment Bank (NIB), when he attempted to cash GH¢35,000 with the fake tickets.

The Chronicle gathered that the GH¢35,000 the fraudster had wanted to cash was rather on the low side, and through fraudulent means, between GH¢10,000 and GH¢500,000, are cashed every week using fake winning tickets at various banks in the country.

The paper stated that President John Mahama then ordered a full scale investigation into these activities of the NLA to bring perpetrators involved to book.