Justice A. Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in
Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, adjourned till October 23, 2025
further hearing in the alleged N1.38bn fraud involving Jude Chigozie Okoye,
elder brother and former Manager of Paul and Peter Okoye.
The Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is prosecuting Okoye alongside his company,
Northside Music Limited, on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering
to the tune of N1.38bn.
One of the counts 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.”
He pleaded "not guilty" to the charges when
they were read to him, upon his arraignment on February 26, 2025.
At the resumed sitting on Wednesday, the first
prosecution witness, PW1, Peter Obumuneme Okoye, while being cross-examined by
the defence counsel, Clement Onwuewunor SAN, said that he never signed any
cheque and had no access to the accounts while still signed to Northside
Entertainment.
He also told the court that, although he received some
money from the Ecobank account of the company, they were not royalties
because the account also received millions of dollars from endorsements and
shows.
He maintained that he never knew about the existence
of Northside Music Limited, his brother’s company, until late 2022 and that he
didn’t receive any proceeds from Lex Records all through his time at the
company.
Justice Owoeye, thereafter, adjourned the matter till
October 23 and November 10, 2025 for continuation of trial.
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