Quality Grain: Video Tape Evidence

A video tape recording of a wedding reception for Miss Juliet Cotton, the Black-American woman at the centre of the Quality Grain case, has provided evidence of how she squandered millions of dollars meant for the production of rice in Ghana.

Joy News has obtained a recording of Miss Cotton’s speech at her wedding reception during which she made a cash donation of $100,000 to her pastor and his wife and boasted that Ghana’s former president, Jerry Rawlings, was her best friend.

The video recording of Juliette Cotton’s testimony at a thanksgiving service has surfaced at a time when a debate is still raging over the sentencing of two former ministers of state and a public official to jail for their role in the Quality Grain affair.

But the video tape may well put the lid on the argument as Miss Cotton is captured in her moment of excitement as she recounted how God had been good to her in awarding her a rice production contract worth 20 million dollars.

Miss Cotton told the congregation at her Atlanta Georgia church that God had blessed her to become a multi-millionaire even though she didn’t have 46 dollars when she started her business. Miss Cotton interjected her narration with shouts of ‘God is good’ to a rapturous response from her audience.

She told of how she began a project in Ghana to grow 20,000 acres of rice in spite of warnings from her friends not to go to Africa and how God gave her favour with Ghana’s former president, Jerry Rawlings, stressing that she was best friends with the President.

"Let me tell you how good God is. Let me tell you how this came about. I do business in rice fields in developing countries all around the world-the Quality Grain Company. We were doing a project in Ghana in West Africa to grow 20,000 acres of rice. We first started the project with like 4.2 million dollars and everybody kept telling me you cant go to Africa, how are you going to go to Africa? But God bring people to me.

God gave me favour with the President of the country who is equivalent to the President at the White House. God is so good to me, I mean the President and I are best friends. I tell you, God said I give you favour with Kings and with men. Halleluyah!"

Miss Cotton further talks about how God’s miracles followed her throughout her negotiations with government officials. According to her, God’s divine favour helped her secure 7 million dollars from an initial request of 5.9 million dollars.

We were in a meeting and with one of the top officials of the government and he said we aren’t givng you that amount of money directly. We want to give it directly to the suppliers. And I said well no problem, my suppliers will take care of me anyway. We were in a meeting getting ready to sign all the documents and at this point we like at 5.9 million dollars and I said we need about 6.5 million dollars.

One of the chief directors said whatever you want we’ll give it to you, I said wow that was really very nice. Then after that meeting out of the minister’s office as I went down the corridor, the holy ghost begun speaking to me and I said I think we need 7 million dollars so I went back and said, Minister you know what I will like think we need 7 million dollars. He said give her whatever she wants. So I asked he gave it to me. God is good to me. Hallelujah. I always gave my tithe and my offering. I always gave to the Lord and he supplied my need.

Mrs Cotton is currently serving time in jail after she was convicted essentially of stealing money that was to be used to purchase equipment for the rice mill project at Aveyime in the Volta region. She was convicted of bank fraud, making false statements and money laundering.

Mrs Cotton is not the only casualty in the Quality Grain affair. Former finance minister, Kwame Peperah, former agric minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Adam, and a former legal director at the finance ministry, George Sipa Yankey, have been sentenced to various jail terms for causing the state to lose more than 20 million dollars in the rice project.

FULL TEXT OF COTTON'S STATEMENT

Let me tell you how good God is. Let me tell you how this came about. I do business in rice fields in developing countries all around the world-the Quality Grain Company. We were doing a project in Ghana in West Africa to grow 20,000 acres of rice. We first started the project with like 4.2 million dollars and everybody kept telling me you cant go to Africa, how are you going to go to Africa?

But God bring people to me. God gave me favour with the President of the country who is equivalent to the President at the White House. God is so good to me, I mean the President and I are best friends. I tell you, God said I give you favour with Kings and with men. Halleluyah! We were in a meeting and with one of the top officials of the government and he said we aren’t givng you that amount of money directly. We want to give it directly to the suppliers. And I said well no problem, my suppliers will take care of me anyway.

We were in a meeting getting ready to sign all the documents and at this point we like at 5.9 million dollars and I said we need about 6.5 million dollars. One of the chief directors said whatever you want we’ll give it to you, I said wow that was really very nice. Then after that meeting out of the minister’s office as I went down the corridor, the holy ghost begun speaking to me and I said I think we need 7 million dollars so I went back and said, Minister you know what I will like think we need 7 million dollars. He said give her whatever she wants. So I asked he gave it to me. God is good to me. Hallelujah. I always gave my tithe and my offering.

I always gave to the Lord and he supplied my need.