A Lagos High Court was told on Friday that Peter Okoye has withdrawn his earlier allegation that he was denied access to the bank account of Northside Entertainment Limited, the firm at the centre of an alleged $1 million fraud case involving his brother, Jude Okoye.
Peter disclosed this while testifying before Rahman Oshodi, the presiding judge, revealing that he is, in fact, a co-signatory to the company’s Ecobank account — contradicting his previous assertion that his elder brother Jude was the sole signatory.
Jude is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Northside Music Limited. He faces a four-count charge of theft exceeding $1 million and has pleaded not guilty.
During cross-examination, Clement Onwuewunor, counsel to the defence, presented bank documents showing that Peter and his twin brother Paul were authorised to operate the account.
While responding, Peter explained that his earlier statement, where he said he was only a shareholder, not a signatory, was based on what he was told during a phone call with officials of a bank he described as new.
However, when questioned specifically about the Northside Entertainment Limited account with Ecobank, he admitted that he is one of the authorised signatories to the account.
“My Lord, I am a co-signatory to the Northside Entertainment Limited account in Ecobank,”he said.
Trying to explain the contradiction between his revelation and earlier claims, Peter claimed that although he was later added as a signatory, he never signed cheques or handled transactions.
“From the very onset, Jude was the only signatory. But after some years, he made myself and Paul signatories. Despite that, I never personally signed cheques or carried out transactions,” he added.
Peter further reaffirmed that the Psquare music catalogue belongs solely to him and his twin brother, excluding Jude.
He explained that Jude was not an original member of the group but joined later as manager around 2004 or 2005, after they had already worked with other managers, while emphasising that the group’s success is the result of the hard work of him and his twin brother.
“We all started together as students. We had several managers before Jude. The success of PSquare was built by me and my twin brother from the beginning,” he said.
Peter also confirmed that Northside Entertainment Limited and Square Records Limited were set up to manage their business.
“That arrangement meant we were not just artistes but part-owners,” he said.
He added that Jude owned about 40% of Northside Entertainment Limited, while he held roughly 30%.
He explained that his royalties are paid directly into his personal account by Mad Solutions, the organisation responsible for collecting and distributing Psquare’s royalties in Nigeria.
However, when shown a royalty distribution contract by Jude’s lawyer, he said he needed to verify whether the signature on it was indeed his.
“The signature looks like mine, but I need to examine the document more closely,” he said.
Oshodi adjourned the case until May 15 for the continuation of the trial.
Peter had earlier claimed Jude’s wife owns 800,000 shares in Northside Music Limited.
The Okoye brothers first parted ways in 2017 after a disagreement on Jude’s role as their manager. In November 2021, they ended their five-year feud and held their first headline concert in December.
Paul, however, confirmed that Psquare no longer exists in August 2024.
