The Supreme Court has delivered a verdict against the renowned musical pair, Peter and Paul Okoye, popularly referred to as Psquare, as well as their sibling, Jude Okoye, in a protracted legal dispute with promoter Mr. Patrick Arueze.
The highest court mandated the trio to compensate Arueze with the amount of N25 million as a consequence of breaching the contractual agreement.
The genesis of the litigation can be traced back to an occurrence in 2011 when Patrick Arueze extended an invitation to Psquare to perform at an event in Benin City.
Nevertheless, the musical duo failed to uphold their end of the bargain, prompting Arueze to initiate legal proceedings for contract violation at the Edo State High Court.
Despite the concerted efforts by the Okoye clan to challenge the ruling, which included submitting an appeal motion and a motion for suspension of judgment, their endeavors proved to be futile.
The Appellate Court in Benin, in a decisive manner, rejected their appeals, compelling them to issue a payment through a banking institution to settle the debt.
Nonetheless, the legal imbroglio persisted when the musicians endeavored to obstruct the payment by submitting another motion at the Appellate Court, only to have it dismissed once more.
Undeterred by these setbacks, they opted to challenge the verdict at the Supreme Court, enlisting the bank as a co-applicant in their motion.
The case was overseen by Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, who ruled in favor of Arueze, with legal representation from a team of attorneys including E. O. Afolabi, SAN, Dr. Samson Osage, and Mrs. Nosa Festus Ajayi.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court dismissed the applicants’ plea and imposed a fine of one million naira for the application.
Speaking on the judgment, Afolabi said;
“Arueze got judgment against them and they now sent a cheque but when we wanted to cash they cheque, they went to court to stop it, the court refused, they went to the Court of Appeal which also refused their stay of execution, they went to Supreme Court and the lawyer now joined the bank who is not a party to the suit at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court was not happy and awarded N1m cost against P-Square and their lawyer did not appear. With this judgment, the applicants are to pay over Twenty five point eight million naira having accumulated since 2014 with 20 percent interest.”
