Peter and Paul Okoye, known as P-Square, and their brother Jude Okoye have been sentenced to pay a promoter N25 million.
The order was issued by the Supreme Court of Nigeria after it decided a case filed against the musicians in favor of Mr Patrick Arueze, who accused the musicians of breach of contract.
According to Vanguard, Arueze invited them to play in a show in Benin City in 2011, but the trio did not show up, so he filed a lawsuit against them for breach of contract in the Edo State High Court, presided over by Justice Esther Edigin at the time.
The Okoyes’ application to reverse the verdict, filed on October 3, 2016, was dismissed by the court.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the artists filed an application for a stay of execution in the Court of Appeal, Benin Division, which was denied, and they later issued a cheque through one of the commercial banks.
However, when the cheque was presented to the bank, the musicians instructed their lawyers to file a motion at the court of appeal Benin Division to stop the payment but the court dismissed the frivolous motion.
As the legal works continued, the Okoyes filed a motion at the Supreme Court seeking to appeal against the ruling of the Court of Appeal which dismissed their motion to stop the payment of the cheque they issued and joined the bank in the motion.
The opposing counsels faulted the decision as the bank was not a party at the court of appeal.
Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji agreed with the arguments of Mr. Patrick Arueze represented by a team of lawyers led by E. O. Afolabi, SAN, Dr. Samson Osage, Mrs Nosa Festus Ajayi, and others.
The Supreme Court however struck out the application of the applicants and awarded one million naira as cost for the application.
Speaking on the judgment, Afolabi told Vanguard that “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.”
