The Federal High Court in Lagos, on Monday, commenced the trial of Jude Okoye, the former manager and elder brother to music duo Peter and Paul Okoye of the defunct PSquare group over alleged money laundering involving $1 million, N1.3 billion, and £34,537.59.
The case, presided over by Justice Alexander Owoeye, saw Peter Okoye taking the witness stand to testify against his brother. Led in evidence by EFCC counsel Larry Peter Aso, Peter alleged that Jude had incorporated another company, Northside Music Ltd, through which he diverted royalties meant for PSquare.
He said, “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,” he added.
The witness said he again approached Jude, who told him that his share of the money was with some people in South Africa, and 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.
Peter further told the court that based on the defendant’s response, he knew that something was going on, and this made him ask the accounts officers in both Eco Bank and Zenith Bank, for the documents. He testified that there was no satisfactory response from the account officers, as even the account officers at Zenith Bank later told him that Jude directed them not to send it to him, adding that the only way he could get it was through the court.
Peter also testified that he discovered that the same aggregators handling P-Square’s music company are the same aggregators handling the defendant’s company, and his request to be given the albums of Psquare was rebuffed by Jude and Paul.
The witness also said that another company, Mad Solutions, was eventually given the music catalogues with the agreement that the company would start making payments after three months of signing the agreement.
Peter said that after three months, he received over $22000 USD, and was told that both Jude and Paul had been paid.
He told the court that until he started asking questions, he did not have any knowledge of the company called Northside Music, and when he asked Paul, he directed him to go and check the album of Cynthia Morgan who was Jude’s artist at the time, and when he checked, he discovered the existence of the new company.
“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.
He said by the time they sent it, it did not any show figure but numbers, and they responded that the backend had been tampered with, meaning that the people that offered $8000 USD could not offer $500 USD, because the numbers had been reduced.
He also told the court how he went to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website, where he discovered that the director of Northside music were Jude Okoye and his wife. And also discovered that Jude’s wife owns 80% while Jude owned 20%.
On the backend, he told the court that he was unable to get anything because it had been tampered with.
He also told the court that the manhandling their tax man named Emmanuel called and said he asked Jude to pay only N2 something million or thereabout, adding that the tax man also said Jude was able to prove that since Psquare broke up, they have not been performing.
Peter said that when he checked the statement of account from 1 January to December 2017, he discovered that those who paid money to the Access Bank account statement were all aggregators.
He stated that based on the discovery, he contacted his lawyer, one Afolabi through whom he wrote a petition against his brother to the EFCC.
Further hearing of the matter has been adjourned to June 4, when Peter will be cross-examined.
Background
Jude is being tried based on the petition written to the commission by his brother, Peter.
He is standing trial before the court alongside his company, Northside Music Limited, on a seven-count charge of the offences.
One of the charges 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 forms 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.”
Another charge reads that Okoye and his company, in 2022, used a Bureau De Change to convert $1,019,762.87 USD, held in an Access Bank account operated by Northside Music Ltd, into naira and transferred the funds into various bank accounts to conceal the illicit origin of the money.
This alleged act, according to the EFCC, violates Section 18 (2)(a) and is punishable under Section 18 (3) of the same Act.
The court has adjourned the case to June 4 for cross-examination.
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