Exclusive: How Foreign Royalty Tears P-Square Apart …Details of what nobody knows about the warring brothers
Definitely, it will take divine and direct intervention of God to solve the crisis between the P-Square brothers, as the group can no longer operate due to protracted irreconcilable differences among the brothers –Peter, Paul and Jude, Global News can authoritatively reveal.
There have been contrasting reports in the media regarding the cause of the fight. Lola Omotayo; Peter’s wife and Anita Isama; Paul’s wife have been fingered in some quarters as the architects of the twin brothers’ face-off. Some have even flogged their elder brother and manager, Jude ‘Engees’ Okoye as the man at the centre of all the controversies. But all these are not absolutely correct.
The rivalry between Peter and Paul dates back to their days at St Murumba College, Jos. It was a time they started performing at shows, imitating the likes of Michael Jackson and MC Hammer among others. What has today metamorphosed to a show of shame among the Okoye brothers can simply be summarised as pride and greed.
At St Murumba College where the brothers perform under the acronym of MMPP (Michael, Melvin, Peter and Paul), Peter was the lead dancer of the group which consists two other friends. In fact, he was the celebrity and socialite among them, as he was usually the toast of their fans. Without Peter, MMPP could not function.
Pride began to set in as Peter struggled to manage that little success. Sources close to them said he began to feel more important than every other member of the group, his twin brother inclusive. As a matter of fact, “Peter used to rubbish Paul a lot, even in public; because he believed Paul cannot do without him. Paul was nobody to Peter then,” our impeccable source reminisced.
Years later, the hustle continued at the University of Abuja where both Peter and Paul were undergraduates. It was at this point that their stage name changed to Da Pees, P&P before eventually settling for P-Square –this was inevitable because Michael and Melvin had gained admission into another tertiary institution, therefore the MMPP group could no longer function.
At UNIABUJA, P-Square’s relative success as dancers continued until people started criticising them for not composing/recording their own original songs. Paul took the challenge and did not just start writing songs, he was also producing them.
P-Square soon became a group to reckon with musically as they won the Benson & Hedges sponsored Golden Tunes music competition in 2001, which was subsequently followed by their debut album titled ‘Senorita’ in 2003. Since then, there has been nothing stopping them. Their first major hit album, ‘Get Squared’ was released in 2005 and the rest was history as P-Square instantly became a big brand in the continent. This was followed by other successful albums like ‘Game Over’, ‘Danger’, ‘Invasion’ and ‘Double Trouble.’
To cut the story short, since Paul began to sing, the rivalry between him and his twin brother started. Who is more relevant? The battle for supremacy started heating up. On many occasions, it was their late mother; Mrs Josephine Okoye who had been using her influence to ensure that there is always peace, no matter what. Her death was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, as she was the only one the boys could listen to –not even their father who wasn’t close to them until a few months to his death. Little wonder many influential Nigerians including the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote tried to settle their current rift all to no avail.
Meanwhile, Peter and Jude had always not been close because the latter would always support Paul against his twin brother whenever any decision regarding their career and project is to be taken. This has over the years made Peter’s opinions more or less irrelevant, and he had been nursing that grudge over the years. By extension, Lola is also not on Jude’s good record, but this has nothing to do with the P-Square rift.
“This is how the whole problem started,” our source began: “Peter, through the assistance of El-haji Diouf (former Senegal and Liverpool attacker) secured a royalty deal with a company in France. When he was processing it, Jude and Paul never believed in it, but within a few weeks, the three of them received the royalty payment in their different bank accounts. It was paid in dollars. The terms of the royalty states that they would be getting the payment every quarter –that was the beginning of the face-off,” our source hinted.
This magazine gathered that it was when Paul realised how lucrative the royalty pay is that he suggested that being the writer and singer of all P-Square’s songs, he deserves to be getting the lion share of the largesse. But Peter disagreed, insisting that Jude’s share should rather be slashed. Jude said over his dead body. That was how the first fight broke out some three years ago.
Of course, there were many efforts to reconcile the warring brothers, but Peter, who started the outburst on social media, insisted that the only condition he would make peace is that henceforth, every P-Square song and album will be recorded by him and Paul on a 50-50 basis. Paul and Jude reluctantly agreed after much persuasion. “That was why they both have equal songs on the ‘Double Trouble’ album, unlike before when it was only Paul that records all their songs,” our source gushed.
However, Paul and Jude attributed the little success recorded by the ‘Double Trouble’ album to the ‘wack’ songs done by Peter. They therefore reiterated that henceforth, the status quo should remain –Paul is expected to continue writing and singing all the songs while Peter leads the choreography. That was the beginning of a fresh trouble.
“As it is now, the P-Square group has been disbanded, and the twin brothers are now pursuing their solo careers. There is nothing called P-Square again, trust me,” our source concluded.
