David Adeleke is one of the most popular celebrities in Nigeria, nay Africa. However, with fame comes several scandals and controversies.
The pop star, fondly called Davido, has often been at loggerheads with Sophia Momodu, the mother of his first child, Imade.
However, many Nigerians were jolted when early in the week, a popular singer, Tiwa Savage, authored a petition, claiming that Davido was harassing her, because of her closeness to Sophia.
Subsequently, Sophia, through her lawyer, Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors, also threatened to take legal action against the ‘Feel’ singer over alleged threat to her life, cyberbullying and harassment.
She issued a ‘cease and desist’ letter to Davido, accusing him of using defamatory remarks and sponsoring negative publications about her. She added that the singer had continued to damage her personality online, despite a previous letter warning him to stop.
Many will, however, recall that the relationship between Davido and Sophia had always been punctuated with different issues. In January 2016, when Imade was barely seven months old, Sophia and her uncle and media mogul, Dele Momodu, had raised an alarm that Davido and his family were attempting to kidnap Imade and take her out of the country to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, without her mother’s permission.
After a messy scandal erupted in the media, Imade was later reunited with her mother.
On his part, Davido had claimed at the time that Sophia ‘applied maximum financial demands on me’.
In a lengthy post on social media, Davido had claimed that Sophia was not being a good mother to Imade. His post read in part, “Within a matter of weeks, Sophia was missing and lusting for the streets of Lagos, especially the glitzy night life. She often left Imade (at) home for clubbing, binge drinking and a life of debauchery and deviant living. She would sleep all day and party all night. When awake, she was addicted to the telephone and cannabis. She paid the baby no attention at all and seemed to despise motherhood and parenting.”
According to him, Imade had difficulty breathing largely because of the contaminated breast milk and the severity of the second-hand of marijuana smoke she allegedly inhaled.
However, after the incident, the co-parents seemed to mend fences, and nothing was heard about a squabble between them for some time.
The seeming peace was later punctured in 2020. It was reported that Davido had gone on a trip to Ghana with Sophia. However, the singer refuted the claims on Instagram, stating that he only gave her and Imade a lift (in his jet), because of his daughter, as he was scheduled to be at an event, Afronation, there too.
He pleaded that the rumours should be stopped, so that his fiancée, Chioma, who he had just proposed to at the time, would not be hurt.
Firing back, Sophia stated that she did not ask him for a lift.
Meanwhile, on Davido’s 30th birthday on November 21, 2022, Sophia was bashed on social media for publishing Imade’s alleged birthday letter to her father.
In the letter, Imade reportedly wrote a statement in honour of her late brother, Ifeanyi, to celebrate her father’s birthday.
Also, in June 2023, Sophia claimed that the singer was not taking care of his daughter, adding that she was considering changing Imade’s last name, since she was playing the roles of both father and mother to her.
About a month earlier, Sophia had been ‘dragged’ online for allegedly stopping Davido from seeing Imade, because of his alleged refusal to yield to some of her demands.
At the time, a blogger, Tunde Ednut had written, “Davido is emotionally down and Imade is emotionally down. Sophia says Davido should start by paying nanny fees in arrears for two years. I think they said it’s around $8,000 a month, and should be paid to her lawyers.
“Please, whoever is handling the legal proceedings should hurry up, because it is the innocent child that is suffering from it.”