P. SQUARE REPLIES THEIR LANDLORD, CHIEF CHARLES NWANGWA

After a long period of silence during which a lot of things happened including the release of their latest album, DANGER, P. Square (Peter and Paul Okoye), and their elder brother, Jude Okoye have finally made an answer to the numerous harassments and public statements about them by their landlord, Chief Charles Nwangwa. They were forced into this by the latest allegation of the man that he was manhandled on his last visit to the house. P. Square sat on either side of their elder brother as they systematically addressed all the allegations and issues raised by their Chief Nwangwa. Some of those were breaking down a portion of the house without his consent; parading themselves as the owners of the house and being rude to him.

They denied Chief Nwangwa’s latest allegation that he was manhandled when he visited the house at 2A Agoro Street, Omole Phase 1, Lagos. Jude stated that nobody touched the man. “Rather, when he brought us a letter on Monday, September, 2009, I refused to collect it because we have not been on the best of terms lately and a man who is the director of a microfinance bank (Olive Microfinance Bank) and the chairman of ZEDEX PETROLEUM had no job bringing us any letter. Moreover, he was in the company of a policeman.”

But firstly, what led to all this?

They were all living at Illupeju before buying a house in Lekki. After just a couple of weeks there, they found out that they couldn’t operate from there because there was no proximity between Lekki and the airport which they needed to use very often because of the nature of their job. They contacted their agent again and he found them their present house. Jude made an agreement of rental, but when on further discussions with the landlord, he found out that he was willing to sell the house for N45 million, he decided to buy. But because he didn’t have that much cash on him, he made a bargain of paying the balance of N39 million two weeks later. Chief Nwangwa refused because that commitment would tie him down from selling the house if a more ready buyer appeared. But since the rent which was N1.7 per year would amount to almost six million naira in three years, he would assume that the N5.7 they are depositing with him would be for three years rent until they were able to pay the remaining N39 million. This was a purely gentleman’s agreement and only the receipt of the money was documented.

After the agreed two weeks, Jude raised the remaining N39 million and wanted to pay the balance so they could assume full ownership of the house but Chief Nwangwa refused claiming that his money was still N45 million and that the six million already paid was only for rent. They couldn’t understand the man’s argument and refused to pay. They then resigned themselves to living out their rent. About a month later, Peter convinced them that instead of staying in the house as tenants for three years, it was still better to pay the landlord the new N45 million he was demanding. By this time they had already pulled down the wall in the studio in order to expand it. To their utmost surprise and dismay, the landlord informed them that the price of the house had gone up to N80 million. That was how they got trapped in the house for about two and a half years now.

They then relaxed and started a landlord-tenant relationship with Chief Nwangwa. He began visiting their house frequently, most times in the company of different ladies. They welcomed him and whoever he brought with him. Most times they came to sign autographs or just stay with them. It was only when the visits started becoming a nuisance and the girls even started coming to the house on their own, that they had to put a stop to it.

Chief Nwangwa’s next step was to start bringing people for them to produce as musicians including his son who was studying in the UK. When Jude told him that he only worked for P. Square, he brought another proposal for a show in Dubai which he wanted P. Square to perform. They told him they charged $100, 000 for a show outside the country and he exclaimed that even Akon doesn’t charge half that amount. He also requested to become P. Square’s marketer but was turned down because that wasn’t his line of business and they already had a marketer.

The next thing was that he asked how much P. Square was making from their studio which he assumed was a public one but they replied him that it was P. Square’s private studio. He then changed it and demanded that they tell him the percentage they would pay him from their next album and that was exactly where the problems started. This happened about two weeks before he took the first set of journalists to the house. Jude said they actually thought the landlord was joking but when he called again asking for the same thing, they realized he meant it.

The landlord then informed them that he was bringing in his lawyers to come and inspect the house. They came the next day and some days later gave them a notice to rebuild the wall they pulled down in seven days. They bought blocks and invited a contractor for the job. But four days later, Chief Nwangwa brought in a group of journalist to come and witness how they had destroyed his house and were being rude to him.

There were other instances when he brought in people from the government to come and demolish the house. “They dropped a letter that we should demolish the house in two days or they would come themselves and do it and we would pay them for doing it. We asked them to come and do it themselves. We still haven’t heard from them,” Jude said. “He also invited taskforce people to come and shut down the house. They padlocked the house from outside without giving us any notice and we had to call people from outside to come and break open the gate for us to come out.”

This latest saga, according to the brothers, is quite unnecessary because their own house, a twin duplex which would be completed by the end of the year would be ready before the expiration of their rent by March next year and they would not even need the quit notice which their landlord was serving them now. They also stated that a problem between a tenant and the landlord was not for the press and if there was case of assault as the landlord claimed, the report should be made to the police and not to press.

P. Square also used the opportunity to reiterate their apology to their fans concerning their actions on the night of the GUINNESS 250 anniversary concert at the Oceanview restaurant, Victoria Island. “Our actions were in the heat of the moment and we are sorry to all our fans who expressed their disappointment in one way or the other. What happened was as a result of a breakdown in communication between us and the organisers” They also stated that there were no problems between them and GUINNESS. “The relationship between Us, TuFace and Guinness remains strong and we all look forward to continuing to work together in the future to provide music lovers and Guinness fans with great experiences.” GUINNESS on their part, through their brand manager, Ohimai Atafo, also responded in like manner. “We have no problems with P. Square, we totally understood their actions and look forward to future collaborations with them.”