The rift between the Okoye brothers Peter, Paul, and Jude just took a sharp legal turn.
Before Justice A. Owoeye of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, Peter testified against his elder brother and former manager, Jude Okoye.
The testimony came after Peter, through his lawyer Afolabi I, filed a petition with the EFCC, accusing Jude and his company, Northside Music Limited of allegedly defrauding him of N1.38 billion.
According to EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale, Jude is now facing a seven-count charge related to fraud and money laundering. One charge reads: “That you, Jude Okoye Chigozie and Northside Music Limited, sometime in 2022, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did directly acquire a landed property known as No 5, Tony Eromosele Street Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos worth ₦850,000,000.00 (Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira only), which money you knew or reasonably ought to have known form part of 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 pleaded “not guilty” when arraigned on the 26th of February, 2025.
Led by prosecution counsel Aso Larry’s Peters, Peter gave a detailed testimony that spanned decades of music, business, and betrayal:
“The group, P-Square started sometime in 1997. But in 2017, it was disbanded. We stayed apart for about five years. But in November 2021, the group came back. Before Jude became our Manager, we had several managers, including Chioma Ugochi, who managed us when we were in the secondary school and in the University; and the late Bayo Odusami of Mbuntu music, who managed us for five years. Thereafter, my twin brother and I managed the band for a couple of months before we decided that he (Jude) would manage us and Northside Entertainment Limited.”
Things, however, began to spiral.
“So, we continued running our business. But we were always having issues about how he was running the business. The issues were mainly about the fact that he was the sole signatory to all our bank accounts in Ecobank, Zenith and FCMB.
“These issues lasted for a couple of months. I didn’t have access to the accounts until the current Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, who was our lawyer, said we needed a sharing formula.”
He also spoke about their Ikoyi housing project: “The funding of the house project was by Northwest Entertainment Ltd. But they just stopped financing my house for six months.
The accounts were owned by the company, while Jude was the only signatory to all the accounts. At some, I approached him and my twin brother, Paul, to know why they stopped financing my project. But what I heard from them was ‘As you leave P-square, you leave the money’.
With that comment, I had to approach our lawyer, Keyamo.”
Peter claimed all their funds sat in a company he couldn’t access: “All our money is in Northside Entertainment, and he is the sole signatory.
Along the line, I discovered that there’s a company similar to ours, Northside Music Limited.”
He said this came to light when prospective buyers showed interest in acquiring their music catalogue: “In 2022, I discovered this when some people wanted to acquire our albums. These individuals demanded our statements of account to know how much the albums were generating monthly. The reason is that I didn’t have access to ‘backend’, which could be traced through a Northside account and through the aggregators (these are people you engage to know when they play your music on any medium, so you get paid). I then demanded that I wanted to know the backend. But he refused. Then, I went to my twin brother, Paul, who replied thus: ‘You know, I don’t know anything about it, but Jude.’
When I suggested we go to see him, he said he would go and meet him, so I left him.”
READ ALSO: Alleged N1.3bn, $1m, £34,000 Fraud: Court Remands P-Square’s Brother Jude Okoye in Prison
Peter continued: “Thereafter, I approached Jude again. He told me that my share of the money was with some people in South Africa. I told him I was not asking for money , but the backend and the statements of the account. But there was no positive response.”
Even bank officials were blocked from sharing information with him: “The account officer at the Zenith Bank later told me that Jude told him not to send it to me. The officer added that the only way I could get it was through the court.”
Efforts to monetize their catalogue eventually brought some success: “I, however, discovered that the aggregators handling P-square’s Music Company were the same persons handling Paul and Peter. So, I approached Paul and told him to give them the albums of P-Square. But Jude and Paul were not comfortable with that.
“Three months later, I received over $22,000 USD. I was also told that both Jude and Paul had been paid.”
Then came a surprising discovery: “Until I called, I did not have an idea of a company called Northside music. I decided not to meet Jude over it. But when I approached Paul if he knew about Northside Music, he said I should check the album by Cynthia Morgan, who was then Jude’s artiste.
When I checked Cynthia Morgan’s album, it was Northside Incorporation and not Northside Music. I then approached Jude for the same backend. He told me that it was going to take three and half months to retrieve the catalogue. And then forwarded the catalogue to me. My new management now sent it to people who wanted to buy it.”
But when he got the data: “By the time it was sent to me, it only bore numbers and not figures. They responded that the backend had been tampered with, which suggested that the people who offered $8000 USD could not offer $500 USD, owing to the fact that the numbers had reduced.”
The ownership structure of Northside Music raised even more questions: “I went to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) site, and discovered that the Directors of Northside Music were Jude Okoye and his wife. I also discovered that Jude’s wife owned 80%, while Jude owned 20%. On the backend, I was unable to get anything because it had been tampered with. One of those interested in buying the catalogue came to my house and invited Paul. But his response was that ‘I know Peter has told you this…When he came back after an hour, he told me that he was tired of all this and that I could do my worst.’”
He concluded with what he found in their bank records:
“But when I checked the statements of accounts from January 1, to December 2017, I discovered that those who paid money to the Access Bank account were the aggregators.”