Peter Okoye, the former manager of P-Square Group, has testified against his older brother, Jude Okoye, in a purported money laundering case involving N1.38 billion, $1 million, and £34,537.59.
On Monday, April 14, the trial got underway in a Lagos Federal High Court. In this case, Justice Alexander Owoeye is the judge.
Jude is being tried on seven counts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, along with his business, Northside Music Limited.
His prosecution follows his brother Peter’s plea to the EFCC over alleged fraud.
As stated in one of the charges, Jude Okoye and Northside Music Limited, within the jurisdiction of this court, “directly acquired a landed property known as No. 5, Tony Eromosele Street Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, worth N850 million only, which you knew or reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of unlawful act, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (2) (d) and punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”
Jude had pleaded not guilty to all charges and refuted the accusations in the meanwhile.
Aso Larrys Peters, the prosecutor, escorted the first prosecution witness, Peter, who identified himself as Peter Obumuneme Okoye, around the courtroom during the reopened hearing, to describe how his brother Jude allegedly deceived him.
He stated in his testimony: “He is my older brother and a former manager of the group P-square. In 2017, the group P-square broke up, and we were apart for almost five years. November 2021: The group returned.
Our partnership lasted from 2017 to 2021. P-square was first used in 1997–1998. We had a number of managers before Jude took over, including Chioma Ugochi. When we were in secondary school and university, she oversaw us. For five years, we were also led by the late Bayo Odusami of Mbuntu music. After my twin brother and I ran our own business for a few months, we agreed that Jude should run both Northside Entertainment Ltd. and us.
We thus carried on with our business, though occasionally we began to have problems with the way he managed it. The primary problem was that he was the only person who could sign all of our bank accounts at Ecobank, Zenith, and FCMB.
“Whenever we experienced these problems for a few months, I was unable to get money. We didn’t have a sharing formula until our lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, who is currently the Minister of Aviation, mentioned it.
“There was a situation where only the defendant could sign out money when we were building our houses in Ikoyi. The house renovation was financed by Northwest Entertainment Ltd., however they abruptly ceased funding my home six months ago.
The corporation owned the accounts, and the defendant was the sole signatory on each one. I asked the defendant and my twin brother, Paul, why they had ceased funding my project when we returned inside that six-month period. I was informed that I had left the money behind when I departed P-Square. I said that to our lawyer, Keyamo, who advised me to speak with the first defendant if I wanted to get a phone. He was the only signatory, and all of our money was in Northside Entertainment.
Following a five-year breakup somewhere in 2017, the group reformed on November 17, 2021, with the defendant no longer in charge. I learnt that Northside Music Limited was a business that was comparable to ours. By the end of 2022, I had learnt that some people were interested in purchasing our albums, but they required our statement of accounts to determine the monthly revenue generated by the albums, as I do not have access to the “backend.” Paul, my twin brother, responded, “You know that I don’t know anything about it but Jude,” so I said, “Let’s go to him.” He then promised to go meet Jude, so I left him.
“Have you contacted Jude?” he asked Paul a few weeks later, and he replied, “Paul told him that he did not have the time.”
In his subsequent testimony, he informed the court that: “I then went up to Jude once again. He informed me that several individuals in South Africa had received my portion of the funds. I explained that all I was requesting was the account’s backend and statements, not cash. However, no encouraging reaction was received.
After this conversation, he revealed that he contacted the accounts officials at Eco Bank and Zenith Bank, respectively, but did not receive an appropriate response.
“The Zenith Bank account officer later informed me that Jude instructed him not to send it to me,” he claims. The officer went on to say that I could only obtain it by going via the court.
But I found out that the same people who handled Paul and Peter were also handling P-square’s Music Company. Thus, I went over to Paul and instructed him to deliver the P-Square LPs to them. Paul and Jude, however, were uncomfortable with that.
Peter also told the court that Paul and Jude later gave him permission to provide Mad Solution the catalogue and that he was promised money after three months.
He stated: “I got more than $22,000 USD three months later. Paul and Jude had also been paid, I was informed.
“I had no notion that there was a business called Northside Music until I contacted. Jude and I didn’t meet because of it. However, Paul advised me to check out Cynthia Morgan’s record, who was Jude’s artist at the time, when I asked him whether he was aware of Northside Music.
“I discovered that Cynthia Morgan’s LP was actually Northside Incorporation, not Northside Music. Jude and I then discussed the same backend. He informed me that the catalogue would not be retrieved for three and a half months.
After that, they sent me the catalogue. People who wished to purchase it were now sent it by my new management.
“It bore only numbers and not figures by the time it was sent to me,” he said.
They replied that there had been tampering with the backend, implying that the individuals who had pledged $8000 USD were unable to offer $500 USD since the numbers had decreased.
When I visited the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website, I learnt that Jude Okoye and his spouse were Northside Music’s directors. I also found that Jude owned 20% and his wife owned 80%.
Because it had been altered, I couldn’t get anything on the backend. Paul was invited by someone who was interested in purchasing the catalogue when they visited my home. However, he replied, “I am aware that Peter has informed you of this.” After an hour, he returned and told me that I could try my hardest because he was sick of it all.
“However, I found that the aggregators were the ones who made payments to the Access Bank account when I examined the account statements from January 1 through December 2017.”