Singer-turned-cleric, Emmanuel Okosi, popularly known as Soul E Baba’s life has been characterised by controversies. Top on the list was his romance with Queen Ure, a lady believed to be older than him.Meanwhile, Ure’s marriage to Pastor Silas Briyork-Newman has also hit the rocks. She got married on November 26, 2017, in Umuahia, Abia State.
In an encounter with Sunday Scoop, however, Soul E said Nigerians should understand that he was never legally married to Ure. He said, “We were making preparations for marriage, but it didn’t work out. She was just my girlfriend at a time; so, I don’t understand why people keep saying that I have been married two times. If anyone thinks we were married, the person needs to tell me the church or court that conducted the marriage. I was tired of the situation I found myself in and I kept quiet because I didn’t want to prolong the issue. I saw that everything I did was always connected to Queen Ure. Every artiste has their personal lives and every artiste has made one mistake or the other. If people want to talk about Soul E, they should talk about me as a person. It is annoying when people say I was once married to Queen Ure.”
He, however, admitted that they were crazily in love at a time. He stated, “In every relationship, there are always ups and downs. Ure is not a bad woman; I respect her and I don’t see her as an enemy. But for some reason, things didn’t work out between us and we went our separate ways. I am happily married now, but I have decided to keep it private after my last experience. I dated Queen Ure and we even lived together. Yes, we were crazily in love and wore rings, but we were never married.”
He disclosed that he had always known that he would become a pastor but fame didn’t allow him yield to God’s calling. Soul E added, “When you are doing music, the money and fame take your attention. I never wanted to become a pastor. Even when I was facing challenges as a musician, I didn’t want to leave music. I knew that my ministry was not in Nigeria because of the circumstances surrounding my music career. I also received prophecies that the work of God would take me out of Nigeria, but I didn’t know the country until God made a way for me. I am in Lesotho, not South Africa. I left Nigeria in January 2017.”
Soul E explained that he had not given up on his music career. He said, “It got to a point where I felt the Nigerian media was against me. I didn’t know who fed the media things about my relationship and my record company. I was discouraged to do music and I didn’t trust anyone again. But music is still in me. As I speak to you, I have over 100 songs that I have recorded and they are all capable of being hit songs. I only refused to release songs because I needed all the drama to die down. I was wrongly dented because I refused to talk; so, I decided to concentrate on my spiritual life. Ninety per cent of the things said about me were lies. I am just a victim of circumstances.”