Peter Okoye, a former member of the defunct music duo P-Square, testified in the N1.3 billion fraud case against his older brother, Jude Okoye on Monday.
Jude Okoye is standing trial on a seven-count charge, including fraud and money laundering, based on a petition written by Peter Okoye through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Led by the prosecution counsel, Larry Peter Aso, Peter Okoye (also known as Mr P) revealed to the court that his issue with his brother began when the latter incorporated another company to collect royalties due to P-Square.
“Psquare started in 1997/98. Sometimes in 2017, the group disbanded, we were apart for nearly 5 years plus. In November 2021, the group came back.
“Before Jude became our manager, we had several managers including; Chioma Ugochi; she managed us when we were in Secondary School/ University. We also had late Bayo Odusami (popularly known as Howie-T), he managed us for 5 years. After that myself and my twin brother managed ourselves for a couple of months, before we decided that he (Jude) should manage us and Northside entertainment Ltd.
“Soon we started having issues on how he ran the business. The issues were mainly on how he was the sole signatory to all our bank accounts in Ecobank, Zenith and FCMB.
“Whenever we have these issues, for months, I won’t have access to money. This continued until Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) now Minister of Aviation, became our lawyer and we came up with a sharing formula.
“There was a scenario that happened when we were building our houses in Ikoyi, where it was only the defendant who could sign out money. The finance of the house project was by Northwest Entertainment Ltd, but for 6 months, they just stopped financing my house.
“Within that six months, when we came back, I approached the defendant and my twin brother, Paul, on why they stopped financing my project, what I heard from them was ‘as you leave Psquare, you leave the money’. With that comment, I had to approach our lawyer, Keyamo, who asked me if i wanted to buy phone, do i need to ask the first defendant? All our money is in Northside Entertainment and he is the sole signatory.
“Sometimes in 2017, the group disbanded for 5 years. In November 2021, there was a reunion, and this time the defendant was no longer managing us, it was then I discovered that there’s a company similar to ours, Northside Music Limited.
“By ending of 2022, some people wanted to acquire our albums, it was then I demanded our statement of account to know how much the albums generate monthly because I don’t even have access to the ‘backend’, which can be traced through Northside account and through the aggregators (these are the people they signed with when they play your music on any medium (YouTube, i-tune…) you get paid, monthly, quarterly.
“I then demanded that I wanted to know the backend from the defendant and he refused. Then I went to my twin brother, Paul, who said: ‘You know say I don’t know anything about it but Jude, I said let’s go and meet, then he later said he’ll go and meet him and then I left him.
“After a few weeks, I approached Paul again and asked ‘Have you contacted Jude?’, he said Paul told him that he did not have the time,” Peter narrated.
Speaking further, he disclosed that he met Jude again and was told that his share of the money was with some people in South Africa.
Peter said he replied that he was not asking for money but for access to the backend and the statement of accounts, and again there was no positive response.
He testified that the defendant’s response made him alert to something fishy going on, prompting a probe of accounts officers in both Eco Bank and Zenith Bank for the documents.
Yet again, the response was not satisfactory as the Zenith Bank account officers reportedly told him Jude instructed them not to send it to him. The only thing left to do to was go to the court.
Peter revealed that he also found out that the same aggregators handling P-Square’s music company are the same aggregators handling the Jude’s company.
His request to be given the albums of Psquare was rebuffed by Jude and Paul.
According to Peter, another company called Mad Solutions was eventually given the music catalogues with the agreement that it would begin making payments after three months.
After three months, Peter got over $22000 USD, and was told that both Jude and Paul had been paid.
He further shared that before his quest to find out what was going on, he was not aware of the existence of the company called Northside Music.
“I then approached Jude for the same backend. He me that it’s going to take three-and-half months to retrieve the catalogues. And he then forwarded the catalogue to him, and his new management now sent it to people that wanted to buy it.”
Peter stated that by the time what he requested was sent, only numbers were shown not figures. He was told that the backend had been tampered with. Because of this, those who offered $8000 USD could not offer $500 USD, because the numbers had been reduced.
Peter testified to the court that he went to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website, where he learned that the director of Northside music were Jude Okoye and his wife. Also, Jude’s wife owns 80% while Jude owned 20%.
After his discovery, he reached out to his lawyer and wrote a petition against his brother to the EFCC.
Hearing on the case was subsequently adjourned o June 4, when Peter will be cross-examined.