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The Performing Musicians’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN) has several platforms on WhatsApp: PMAN Elders Forum, PMAN Stakeholders Forum, PMAN Peace Council, PMAN Speak Out and many others.
Since August 2024, the PMAN platforms have been practically in commotion and explosion, with numerous members spitting fire over what many of them have alleged to be the grand corruption, larceny, fraud, betrayal and outright hijacking of the association for personal profit by the PMAN self-styled president, Pretty Okafor.
Trouble started in August when members of Okafor’s National Working Committee, led by famous hit maker, Sunny Neji, issued a public statement saying that Pretty Okafor who was away in Spain, had been suspended from office. Okafor was alleged to have travelled with over 30 unknown people to Spain on what was purportedly an official visit. No identifiable official of PMAN was on the trip. Nobody knows how many of the people who travelled with him came back to Nigeria. There are allegations that each of the individuals who went with Pretty, paid a handsome amount to him in what has been said to be a well calculated human trafficking and visa scam.
Upon his return from Spain, Pretty conjured a National Executive Council meeting and it was then announced that Acting President, Sunny Neji; Working Committee members, Zaaky Azzay and rapper, Ruggedman plus General Secretary, Aita Bonny, had been fired. That set off a chain of events that no one knows how to control. Very dirty linens previously hidden from everyone, are now being washed in public!
To say that PMAN is boiling is to put it mildly. Presently, PMAN is spilt in many different camps, parading at least, three presidents: Pretty Okafor, Sunny Neji and one Fruitful Mekwunye, recently declared president at an unannounced election in Ikeja, said to have been organized by flutist, Tee Mac Itsele and Reggae Star, Orits Wiliki, to torpedo Okafor’s control of PMAN.
Outside of the alleged visa scam, the fulcrum of the massive ‘wahala’, tearing PMAN to shreds, is the allegation that Pretty Okafor in collusion with some other persons has secretly sold the massive piece of land located near the city gate in Abuja meant for the PMAN Plaza project in the Federal Capital. It is alleged that a whopping sum of N620 Million Naira was realized from the sale to a religious organization and that the money has been shared by Okafor with his cronies, with Okafor pocketing a hefty percentage of the proceeds.
It will be recalled that the said land was obtained for PMAN from the Federal Government by the present Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Chief Tony Okoroji, during his widely acclaimed tenure as President of PMAN.
The choice land was given to PMAN on the orders of then President, Ibrahim Babangida, a well-known admirer of Okoroji. Okoroji had conceived the PMAN Plaza project and finished the detailed designs and 3D architectural model of what was planned to be a dazzling monument in Abuja that would house the headquarters of PMAN and give Abuja the most sophisticated events and commercial venue in the nation’s capital. Many believe that if Okoroji had remained in office, the PMAN Plaza would have been built. Unfortunately, he announced that his term had expired, and left office, leaving behind the detailed blueprint for the plaza.
Many PMAN members are enraged and aghast at the turn of events. They cannot understand how the land given to them, not for sale, but to position the association in the heart of the Federal capital could have been disposed of by some individuals and the proceed shared among them. A number are calling for Pretty Okafor’s arrest and prosecution. Some have, in fact, headed to court. It has even been speculated that some members may be planning to storm Pretty Okafor’s PMAN office in a gated estate in Lekki, Lagos, in search of Okafor, so they can teach him a lesson.
Okafor’s response to the raging brouhaha has been to bluff his accusers and recently to publish on the PMAN platforms that he is a spiritual man and would take all his PMAN adversaries to “Okija Shrine’ where they would be dealt with!
Pretty Okafor’s position as President of PMAN has from the beginning been clothed in controversy. There is a significant number of PMAN members who are adamant that Okafor was never elected President of PMAN by a valid PMAN National Delegates Conference but rather hijacked the leadership of the association for money making. According to them, what he has done is to cleverly manipulate the system with false affidavits at the National Industrial Court to obtain what he touts as a “consent judgment” that he says empowers him to be president of PMAN. Whose consent? they ask.
Now, the bubble has burst. Okafor is at war on so many fronts. He is at war with his former enablers like Sunny Neji, Zaaky Azzay, Ruggedman and Aita Bonny, whose fraternization with him previously gave Pretty a measure of credibility. He is separately in court with his erstwhile Treasurer, Asha Bunmi Fapohunda also known as Asha Gangali who accuses Okafor of open theft of millions belonging to PMAN.
Okafor is at war with Tee Mac Itsele, with Orits Wiliki, with Richard Cole, with Black Rice and with Felix Duke from whom he attempted to hijack the leadership of the Creative Industry Group (CIG). He is at war with countless others. Recently he seems to have drawn the rage of New York based Nigerian musician, Emma Agu also called Emma Aguike, alias Allah Bama. Emma Aguike has published in three parts, a series on Pretty Okafor which he titled, “Between Greed, Corruption and Leadership”
In his piece, Emma Aguike asks “What happened to PMAN’s 620 Million Naira and more?” and writes: “Pretty Okafor seems to be utilizing deceit, intimidation and harassment to control PMAN. He is targeting those he sees as adversaries by any means necessary”
A very angry PMAN member recently posted on PMAN Elders Forum: “Now, Pretty is cornered and he cannot escape his criminal forgery and impersonations. Pretty will go to jail for lying on oath and misleading the court to obtaining his fraudulent judgment. His time is up”.
Is Pretty Okafor’s time really up? He seems to be a master of subterfuge. He is deploying lawyers to threaten anyone that speaks ill of him. The problem is that there are so many people saying that he is a scammer. How many can he threaten? He is also deploying PR surrogates to launder his image, even trying to hold a quickly called and tightly controlled press conference. Once again, the more he tries, the angrier and more determined his adversaries get.
The elders and past leaders of PMAN have been called to step in and douse the raging fire that is fast consuming the association. It appears that none of them wants to get soiled by the Pretty Okafor mess. One person who has been repeatedly mentioned, is COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, the most celebrated PMAN President in the organization’s history, who singlehandedly obtained the Abuja land, the controversial sale of which is presently at the heart of the PMAN fracas.
Coincidentally, Pretty Okafor also tried to destabilize and hijack COSON considered by many as the most stable, resourceful and organized body in the nation’s creative industry. Okoroji who has won several court cases against Pretty Okafor whom he is said to view as a virus, is totally tight lipped on the PMAN scandal and said not to want to be distracted by the Pretty Okafor mess. As he makes plans for a master blaster COSON Week to take place in May 2025, he is said to be concentrating on establishing COSON as a world class creative industry juggernaut that gives clearly visible benefits to thousands of musicians in Nigeria. Okoroji is said to believe that those who enabled Pretty Okafor to “hijack” PMAN should go and solve the problem they created.
During the Christmas season, Pretty Okafor was rarely seen in public. He is very scarce, like someone in hiding. But where will Pretty Okafor run to as the multi-million Naira PMAN scandal engulfs him?
This line was posted by a PMAN member on WhatsApp: “For many years Pretty Okafor who thinks that he is the smartest crook in the world, cooked for PMAN members, now PMAN members are cooking for him. Where will he run to?”
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