August 01, (THEWILL) – Nigerian singer, Paul Okoye, popularly known as Rudeboy, has claimed that his twin brother, Peter, aka Mr P, once had him arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) due to the feud between the singing brothers.
Paul and Peter make up the hugely popular music duo P-Square which is regarded as one of Nigeria and Africa’s biggest acts of this century.
The duo became household names across Nigeria in the 2000s with their Afropop hits but had an acrimonious split in the mid-2010s that kept them apart for several years.
They were recently reunited and went on tour together, but there have been reports of another parting of ways, which Rudeboy has now confirmed.
He told City FM in a recent interview that he and his brother were no longer together as a performing duo and spilt how Mr P was involved in EFCC questioning him.
The singer/songwriter said he was invited earlier this year by the EFCC to explain his financial dealings from as far as 2006.
“I am not saying anything to condemn anybody but I think the fans need to start knowing so they do not feel as if ‘what is going on?’ There is nothing that is going on,” Rudeboy said.
“It happened like December last year (the split). I was invited by the EFCC this year. They wrote a petition against me and my elder brother (Jude Okoye). I never thought it would get to this part. I thought it was just music.
“Next thing, people were asking me what I did. Someone was saying I would go to jail for 20 years. When I arrived, they printed all my account statements and put them on the table.
“The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘What if I was into a dubious business in the past like Yahoo? ‘Na so my brother for finish me?’
“But I took it. They started an investigation. There was a time when they started asking me some questions that I was not comfortable with.
“When I knew it was getting serious was when they said I should get a surety, a lawyer.
“One month ago, they called me, my twin brother and our elder brother (Jude Okoye) and said, ‘First of all, we have to say that after all investigations, Paul is innocent. Paul is cleared. Everything you accused him of, we’ve done our investigation and he’s innocent.’
“Even though I was proven innocent, my twin brother didn’t apologise for the false accusations,” he said.
P-Square has seven studio albums together, including monster hits ‘Get Squared’, ‘Game Over’ and ‘The Invasion’, and won numerous local, continental and international awards for their usually uptempo African pop music.
They had their first split in 2016 after a disagreement on the role of their older brother who happened to be their manager.
The feud ended in November 2021 and they staged their first joint performance as P-Square in five years to formally declare their comeback.
