Vanessa Obioha
Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage, yesterday filed a petition against Grammy-nominee David Adeleke, better known as Davido, citing alleged threats to life. In the petition dated January 9, 2024, to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Savage accused Davido of uttering “very disrespectful, malicious and derogatory words to my person.” This came after a post she made on her Instagram story on December 23, 2023, featuring one of Davido’s baby mamas, Sophia Momodu.
Savage stated that the event of that day had led to “a barrage of calls and messages from our mutual friends, asking me what I did to Me David Adeleke, that he’s upset that I choose to maintain a relationship with Imade’s mother, Sophia Momodu who he’s having issues with and also painting the exchange to look like I was the aggressor.”
Sophia, a niece to the publisher and politician, Dele Momodu, has had a tumultuous relationship with Davido, being the mother of his first child, Imade. Their history includes a highly publicized custody battle for Imade a few years ago, drawing significant media attention. The dispute even involved their respective families, with Davido disrespecting Momodu in his statements.
Last year, Sophia hinted at considering a change in her daughter’s surname, citing Davido’s perceived neglect of his fatherly responsibilities towards Imade.
However the saga between Savage and Davido has been ongoing in the past few days marked by both artistes unfollowing each other on Instagram. Tensions escalated when Savage’s ex-husband, Tunji ‘Teebillz’ Balogun, took to social media in a series of posts confronting Davido. Teebillz explicitly warned Davido not to interfere with Savage, who is the mother of his son.
On Monday, Teebillz posted a graphic with the text ‘A father who abandons his family is like a coward who abandons his post in a battle.’
In the caption, he asked his over 400,000 followers:
“What would you do if some (sic) threatened to send boys to the mother of your son and this is the third time he’s bullied her…you tried respectfully to reach out and the response is arrogance and nonchalance pls?”
He later shared a screenshot of a message sent to Davido, threatening to deal with the singer if he messed with Savage.
He gave further details in the caption, hinting that they had to plead with Sophia to allow Davido to see his child.
“After much pleading with Sophia to let you see your daughter, she agreed with lighter conditions…….. “Tee Billz dey beg to talk to you” is the narrative from your ungrateful, Evil soul…
“I told you those idiots that you surround yourself with are your major problems! You haven’t seen your daughter for 2 Christmas 1 birthday and no one in your camp could advise you that’s hell of wrong… The Narrative of Sophia doesn’t want you to see your daughter will be exposed with receipts! No more bullying the poor lady… #UNGRATEFUL”
Savage in her petition, told the CP that she found the action of Davido unethical and “can be viewed as a direct threat to my rights to life, privacy and dignity of my person as guaranteed in Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and are also in contravention of Section 2424) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015.
“I therefore would like to make this complaint and state that in the event that anything untoward or harmful were to happen to me or any member of my family, I would like the members of the Nigerian Police Force to hold Mr David Adeleke responsible.”
Davido’s recent rift with Savage is just the latest episode in a series of controversies. Last year, he clashed with the former President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick over his failure to appear at an event in Warri, despite having agreed to perform and receiving payment.
