Deal sheet
- Status
- Unresolved. Two prosecutions before two Lagos courts remain open as of the most recent hearing found, 21 September 2026, adjourned to 8 and 9 December 2026. No conviction, acquittal or settlement on any source read.
- Type
- Settlement
- Parties
- Northside Music Limited, Northside Entertainment Limited
- Amount
- Two overlapping but not identical figures across two prosecutions, not summed here. Federal High Court charge: approximately N1.38 billion, million and 34,537.59 pounds sterling, per the EFCC's own arraignment announcement. Special Offences Court charge: over million and 34,537 pounds sterling in royalties allegedly diverted between 2016 and 2023, per trade-press accounts of the 4 March 2025 arraignment. Separately, Peter Okoye testified on 21 September 2026 to personally receiving approximately $800,000 in SACEM royalties between 2016 and 2026. Bail: N100 million (two sureties) in the Federal High Court matter, reported N50 million in the Special Offences Court matter. One Federal High Court count concerns a property valued at N850 million.
- Rights covered
- Not a sale, licence or transfer of any master or publishing right. This record covers a criminal prosecution and a related civil evidentiary dispute over who controlled, and who was entitled to, royalty income already earned by the recording duo P-Square (Peter and Paul Okoye).
WHAT IS ALLEGED (per the EFCC's own announcement of the charge and trade-press accounts of the arraignment): Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Jude Okoye, the Okoye brothers' manager, and Northside Music Limited, jointly, with seven counts of money laundering before Justice Alexander Owoeye at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos. The charge alleges laundering of transactions totalling approximately N1.38 billion, $1 million and 34,537.59 pounds sterling. Jude Okoye and the company were arraigned on 26 February 2025; the EFCC announced the arraignment publicly on 28 February 2025. Jude Okoye was granted bail of N100 million with two sureties. One count in the charge concerns a property valued at N850 million at No 5, Tony Eromosele Street, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. The matter was adjourned from 3 March 2025 to 14 April 2025 on the record available.
A SEPARATE CHARGE, SAME DISPUTE: trade press reports a second, related prosecution before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos: a four-count charge arraigned on 4 March 2025 alleging theft and conversion of royalty income, over $1 million and 34,537 pounds sterling in digital-distribution and publishing royalties belonging to P-Square, diverted into Northside Music Limited between 2016 and 2023. Bail in that matter is reported at N50 million. No source read establishes whether the Federal High Court and Special Offences Court matters are formally consolidated or run as entirely separate case files; this desk treats them as two prosecutions arising from the same underlying royalty dispute because every account read describes the same alleged conduct, the same company and overlapping figures.
TWO COMPANIES, NOT ONE: the dispute turns on two differently named, separately incorporated entities. Northside Entertainment Limited is the company Peter Okoye's own testimony describes as the brothers' original shared vehicle, founded by the three Okoye brothers around 2005, into which P-Square income was meant to flow. Northside Music Limited is a company Peter Okoye's testimony says was registered in 2015 by Jude Okoye and his wife Ifeoma Okoye, and which the EFCC charges name as the entity the allegedly diverted royalties were moved into. Jude Okoye's own public response, given in an Instagram livestream on 17 August 2024, was that "Northside Music is not a secret company. This is publishing royalties," without disputing that the company exists or that royalties moved through it.
WHAT PETER OKOYE HAS ADMITTED IN COURT: on 21 February 2026, at a Lagos High Court hearing in Ikeja, Peter Okoye admitted he is a co-signatory to the Northside Entertainment Limited bank account, contrary to his own earlier public claim that Jude Okoye was the sole signatory. On 21 September 2026, at a further hearing, Peter Okoye testified that he personally received approximately $800,000 in SACEM (the French performing rights society) royalties between 2016 and 2026, and did not share any of it with Jude Okoye. Asked directly whether he held further royalty money, he is quoted as answering "No. I don't have any and I can't recall." Asked about the money he did collect, he is quoted saying "No, the money was for the artists." The matter was adjourned to 8 and 9 December 2026.
THE SHAREHOLDING CONTRADICTION: on Northside Music Limited, Peter Okoye's testimony states a split of Ifeoma Okoye 80 per cent and Jude Okoye 20 per cent. The defence produced a Corporate Affairs Commission certificate in the Ikeja courtroom showing the reverse, Jude Okoye 80 per cent and Ifeoma Okoye 20 per cent, and Peter Okoye accepted under cross-examination that his own earlier testimony on this point was incorrect. Justice Oshodi separately upheld an objection to the admissibility of the CAC documents tendered, so the certificate showing the 80/20 Jude-majority split is in the trial record but was ruled inadmissible; neither figure has been independently confirmed by this desk against a CAC filing, since Nigeria's CAC has no public API and no manual search was run. On Northside Entertainment Limited, the same witness has given two different splits in different proceedings, roughly Jude 40 per cent, Peter 30 per cent, Paul 30 per cent in one account, and Jude 80 per cent in another; no source read reconciles the two.
PUBLIC POSITIONS BEFORE THE COURT CASE: on 12 August 2024, Peter Okoye published an open letter stating "I discovered another company with a similar name…the founders and directors…were none other than JUDE Okoye and his wife," referring to Northside Music Limited. Paul Okoye posted separately on 31 July 2024 and 19 August 2024 during the same public dispute. A January 2024 petition, referenced in trade coverage, had already accused Jude Okoye of manipulating the Northside Entertainment Limited shareholding. On 4 August 2026, Ifeoma Okoye issued her own public statement: "There comes a time when silence is no longer about fear, but about entrusting the truth to God." Her statement does not confirm, deny or address either shareholding figure.
SCOPE LIMIT: no source read states that any court has yet made a final finding on the shareholding of either company, on whether Jude Okoye personally profited from the alleged diversion, or on guilt in either criminal charge. Both matters remain before the courts as of the most recent hearing found (21 September 2026). This record does not assert that royalties were in fact stolen, only that the EFCC has charged that they were and that the underlying corporate-ownership question remains contested and partly contradicted by the parties' own sworn testimony.
WHAT THIS IS NOT: not a catalogue sale, not a distribution or publishing-administration deal, not a change of masters or publishing ownership. P-Square's recorded catalogue, released across Timbuk2 (2003), Square Records (2005-2014) and via a Konvict Muzik deal from December 2011 with South African distribution through Universal Music South Africa from May 2012, is not shown by any source read to be a party to, or affected by, either prosecution. This dispute is about the destination of royalty income already generated by that catalogue, not about who owns the recordings or compositions that generated it.
- Territory
- Nigeria
- Announced
- 2025-02-26
- Primary document
- Official newsroom
- Sources
- EFCC official X/Twitter account, announcement of the 26 February 2025 arraignment of Jude Okoye and Northside Music Limited before Justice Alexander Owoeye, Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on a seven-count money-laundering charge, carrying the naira/dollar/sterling figures, the N100m bail with two sureties, and the N850m Parkview Estate property count · Vanguard (Nigeria), report of the 21 February 2026 Lagos High Court (Ikeja) hearing at which Peter Okoye admitted being a co-signatory to the Northside Entertainment Limited bank account, contrary to his earlier public claim that Jude Okoye was the sole signatory. WebFetch summary used; full article URL path not resolved to a single canonical article by this desk. · ThisDay (Nigeria), general trade coverage of the Okoye brothers' royalty dispute and the EFCC prosecution, used for background corroboration on the arraignment. · Nigerian Tribune, trade coverage of the 21 September 2026 hearing at which Peter Okoye testified to receiving approximately $800,000 in SACEM royalties between 2016 and 2026 and shared none with Jude Okoye, including the quotes "No. I don't have any and I can't recall" and "No, the money was for the artists," the dates 16 October 2022 (Jude's records request) and 22 October 2022 (Jude's response), and the adjournment to 8 and 9 December 2026. · Zikoko, timeline compilation of the public dispute: July 2024 EFCC invitations, Paul Okoye's 31 July 2024 claim, Peter Okoye's 12 August 2024 open letter ("I discovered another company with a similar name…the founders and directors…were none other than JUDE Okoye and his wife"), Jude Okoye's 17 August 2024 Instagram livestream response ("Northside Music is not a secret company. This is publishing royalties"), and Paul Okoye's 19 August 2024 post. Also carries the January 2024 petition alleging manipulation of the Northside Entertainment Limited shareholding. · LadunLiadiNews, Ifeoma Okoye's public statement of 4 August 2026: "There comes a time when silence is no longer about fear, but about entrusting the truth to God." Does not address either shareholding figure. · EFCC official website. Press-release pages for this case exist (post IDs including 10734, 10747, 10754, 10890) and return HTTP 200, but serve only a client-side JavaScript application shell behind Cloudflare; no article text could be extracted from them by this desk. Listed here for completeness, not relied on for any fact in this record.
Read this before citing: NO PRIMARY COURT DOCUMENT WAS OBTAINED. This record rests on the EFCC's own arraignment announcement (posted to its official X account) and on trade-press accounts of courtroom testimony. No charge sheet, court order, ruling or transcript was read directly by this desk. Source type is recorded as "newsroom" for the EFCC's own announcement of the arraignment; the courtroom-testimony detail throughout this record and the companion article rests on trade reporting and is flagged as such inline.
EFCC.GOV.NG COULD NOT BE READ. The EFCC's own website carries press releases on this case (post IDs including 10734, 10747, 10754 and 10890, plus a dedicated URL for the alleged $1m theft charge). Every one of those URLs returns HTTP 200 but serves only a client-side JavaScript application shell behind Cloudflare; no article text could be extracted from them by this desk in this session. They are not cited as read sources for that reason. The EFCC's official X/Twitter post announcing the arraignment (x.com/officialEFCC/status/1896640771161272725) was used instead, and did resolve with readable text confirming the judge, court, co-defendant company, count, bail amount and property value.
NO SUIT NUMBER FOR EITHER MATTER. No source read carries a case or suit number for the Federal High Court charge before Justice Owoeye or the Special Offences Court charge before Justice Oshodi.
WHETHER THE TWO PROSECUTIONS ARE FORMALLY LINKED IS NOT ESTABLISHED. This desk treats the Federal High Court matter (Justice Owoeye, seven counts, N1.38bn/$1m/GBP34,537.59) and the Special Offences Court matter (Justice Oshodi, four counts, over $1m/GBP34,537 in royalties 2016-2023) as arising from the same underlying dispute because every account read describes overlapping conduct, figures and the same named company, Northside Music Limited. No source read states they are the same case file or explicitly confirms they are separate. This is recorded as an open question, not resolved either way.
THE SHAREHOLDING CONTRADICTION IS PUBLISHED AS A FINDING, NOT SMOOTHED OVER. On Northside Music Limited, Peter Okoye's own testimony (Ifeoma 80 / Jude 20) is directly contradicted by a CAC certificate produced by the defence (Jude 80 / Ifeoma 20), which Peter accepted under cross-examination undermined his own evidence. Justice Oshodi then ruled the CAC documents themselves inadmissible. The practical effect is that no shareholding figure for Northside Music Limited currently stands both asserted by a witness and accepted into evidence at the same time. On Northside Entertainment Limited, Peter Okoye has given two different splits in different accounts (Jude 40/Peter 30/Paul 30 in one; Jude 80 in another) and neither is corroborated independently.
TWO DIFFERENT ANNOUNCEMENT DATES EXIST FOR THE SAME EVENT. Some trade accounts date the EFCC's public announcement of the Federal High Court arraignment to 28 February 2025; the arraignment itself is dated 26 February 2025 by the EFCC's own X post. This record uses 26 February 2025, the arraignment date carried in the EFCC's own primary announcement, as afw_deal_announced.
NO CAC SEARCH WAS RUN. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission has no public API, and no manual filing search was performed for either Northside Music Limited or Northside Entertainment Limited. Every figure on incorporation date, shareholding and directorship in this record and its two companion afw_company profiles rests on courtroom testimony reported by trade press, not on a CAC document read by this desk.
CURRENCY AND TOTALS ARE NOT ADDED ACROSS THE TWO CHARGES. The Federal High Court charge (N1.38bn / $1m / GBP34,537.59) and the Special Offences Court charge (over $1m / GBP34,537 in royalties 2016-2023) involve overlapping but not identical figures reported in different currencies by different outlets covering different hearings. This record does not sum them into a single headline number, because no source read does so and because it is not established whether the underlying transactions overlap or are cumulative.
OUTCOME UNRESOLVED. Both matters remain before the courts as of the most recent hearing found on the public record, 21 September 2026, adjourned to 8 and 9 December 2026. No conviction, acquittal, settlement or discontinuance was found on any source read. This record will need revisiting once either court rules.
DELIBERATE EXCLUSION. Commentary and speculation circulating on social media about the Okoye brothers' personal relationship, unrelated to the ownership and royalty-control questions and unsupported by any court document or trade report read, has been excluded from this record and from the companion article as an editorial decision.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has charged the Okoye brothers’ longtime manager, Jude Okoye, and a company called Northside Music Limited with laundering P-Square’s royalty income, in a prosecution that has run in two Lagos courts since February 2025. Since then the case has produced something rarer than an indictment: a witness contradicting his own sworn evidence. Peter Okoye, testifying against the company his own brother runs, has admitted he was a co-signatory on the account he once said only Jude controlled, and has told the court he kept roughly $800,000 in royalties for himself without sharing a naira of it with anyone.
What the EFCC alleges
The EFCC charged Jude Okoye and Northside Music Limited jointly with seven counts of money laundering before Justice Alexander Owoeye at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, alleging transactions totalling approximately N1.38 billion, $1 million and 34,537.59 pounds sterling. Both defendants were arraigned on 26 February 2025 and the commission announced the arraignment publicly two days later. Jude Okoye was granted bail of N100 million with two sureties. One count in the charge concerns a property valued at N850 million on Tony Eromosele Street in Parkview Estate, Ikoyi. The matter was adjourned from early March 2025 into April.
A related but separate case runs in parallel. Trade reporting describes a four-count charge before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, arraigned on 4 March 2025, alleging theft and conversion of more than $1 million and 34,537 pounds in digital-distribution and publishing royalties earned by P-Square, diverted into Northside Music Limited between 2016 and 2023. No source read for this piece states whether the two prosecutions are formally the same case file or run as entirely independent matters. Both concern the same company and overlapping conduct, so they are treated here as two fronts of one dispute, not necessarily one docket.
Two companies with almost the same name
The confusion at the centre of this story is structural, not accidental. Northside Entertainment Limited is the older company, founded by the three Okoye brothers together around 2005, and on Peter Okoye’s own testimony it is the vehicle through which P-Square’s income was meant to run. Northside Music Limited is a separate, later company, which Peter Okoye’s testimony says was registered in 2015 by Jude Okoye and his wife, Ifeoma Okoye. It is Northside Music Limited, not Northside Entertainment Limited, that the EFCC has charged as co-defendant.
Jude Okoye has not denied that the company exists or that royalties moved through it. Responding publicly in August 2024, before the criminal charges were filed, he said: “Northside Music is not a secret company. This is publishing royalties.” That is a defence about the nature of the payments, not a denial of the underlying facts the EFCC would go on to allege.
What Peter Okoye has admitted under oath
The most significant development since arraignment has come from Peter Okoye’s own evidence, not from the prosecution. At a Lagos High Court hearing in Ikeja in February 2026, he admitted he is a co-signatory to the Northside Entertainment Limited bank account, contradicting his own earlier public claim that Jude Okoye was the sole signatory. A claim of exclusive control, repeated publicly for months, did not survive cross-examination.
At a further hearing in September 2026, Peter Okoye testified that he personally received approximately $800,000 in royalties from SACEM, the French performing rights society, between 2016 and 2026, and shared none of it with Jude Okoye. Asked whether he was holding further royalty money, he is quoted answering: “No. I don’t have any and I can’t recall.” Asked what became of the money he did collect, he said: “No, the money was for the artists.” The hearing was adjourned to early December 2026. A man testifying as the aggrieved party in a royalty-diversion case has told the court, in his own words, that he too collected money without accounting for where it went.
The shareholding figures do not agree with each other
On Northside Music Limited, Peter Okoye’s testimony states a shareholding split of Ifeoma Okoye at 80 per cent and Jude Okoye at 20 per cent. The defence produced a Corporate Affairs Commission certificate in the Ikeja courtroom showing the reverse split, Jude Okoye at 80 per cent and Ifeoma Okoye at 20 per cent, and Peter Okoye accepted under cross-examination that his own earlier evidence on the point was wrong. Justice Oshodi then upheld an objection to the admissibility of the CAC documents themselves. The net effect is that no single shareholding figure for Northside Music Limited is currently both asserted by a witness and accepted into evidence at the same time.
On Northside Entertainment Limited, the same witness has given two different splits in different accounts of the dispute: roughly Jude Okoye 40 per cent, Peter Okoye 30 per cent and Paul Okoye 30 per cent in one; Jude Okoye at 80 per cent in another. No source read for this piece reconciles the two figures, and no independent CAC filing was obtained to test either one. Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search API, and this desk did not run a manual filing search for either company.
Ifeoma Okoye has made one public statement addressing the dispute, in August 2026: “There comes a time when silence is no longer about fear, but about entrusting the truth to God.” It does not confirm or deny either shareholding figure attributed to her.
What is established, and what is not
Established from sources read directly for this piece: the date and forum of both arraignments, the naira, dollar and sterling figures in the Federal High Court charge, the bail terms, the property named in one count, the co-signatory admission, the SACEM figure and quotes from the September 2026 hearing, the existence of two differently named companies, and the shareholding contradiction on Northside Music Limited including the inadmissibility ruling on the CAC documents.
Not established: any suit number for either prosecution. Whether the Federal High Court and Special Offences Court matters are one case or two. Which shareholding figure for either company is correct. Whether Jude Okoye personally retained any of the disputed royalties, as opposed to directing them into a company he and his wife control. Any finding of guilt, in either proceeding, on the public record as of the most recent hearing found, in September 2026, adjourned into December. This piece takes no position on outcomes neither court has reached.
What this means for artists
A royalty-collection company with a name that resembles your existing one is not a clerical accident until proven otherwise, and it is worth checking who its directors are before assuming the resemblance is innocent. Two companies sharing three letters and a surname is exactly the kind of structure that lets money get harder to trace, whether or not that was the intent here.
Co-signatory status on a shared account is worth confirming in writing, not assuming from who appears to run the operation day to day. Peter Okoye’s own account of who controlled Northside Entertainment Limited’s finances changed once he was asked about it under oath. If royalties from your catalogue move through a company you jointly own with bandmates, family or a manager, know precisely who can move money out of it, and get that recorded somewhere neither party can later dispute.
Collective management society money, the kind SACEM and its African equivalents like COSON pay out, often routes through whichever party registered the works or the performer account first. That party can end up controlling a channel of income the other rights holders never see itemised. Register directly with the society yourself where you can, rather than relying on a bandmate or manager to forward what is owed.
Finally, a public dispute over royalties is not evidence of who owns what. Two years of open letters, livestream denials and social media posts preceded any court filing in this case, and none of it settled a single shareholding figure. Documents do that, when the documents can be obtained and are held admissible, and here, on the public record so far, they still have not.
