My story – Davido

By Tosin Ajirire and Rita Okoye

Rave making Afro Hip-hop musician, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has finally opened up on his spat with the mother of his baby, Sophia.
The crooner, in a statement, traced the genesis of his problem with Sophia to when she broke the news of her pregnancy to him.
Davido said he was bemused and confused to learn that Sophia was carrying his baby. But then, having realised that nothing could be done to alter his status as a father-to-be, he adjusted himself to the reality despite the fact that he was not ready to be a father.
In his words: “I made the determination that I was going to be a good dad. I also reasoned that my blunder was not enough pretext to make me a husband. I was just 21. And so, I decided to be a responsible dad without being husband to the mother of my baby. I never was in love with Sophia neither was marriage ever in the offing.
“Without knowing for sure that I was the real dad of the baby, I entrusted Sophia to the services of a private hospital for both pre-natal and post-natal medical cares. An apartment at Lekki was leased for two year and paid for by me. The burden of medical bills, feeding, transportation and sundry costs rested on my person. No family member of Sophia, including Uncle Dele Momodu, rose to help nor guide Sophia.”
As the owner of the Lekki property, Davido said he was generous enough and allowed Sophia to stay with him in the house because she claimed that she knew nobody in Lagos and that her father was dead while her mother was in Abuja.
“For real, Sophia was a drifter without a dime, education nor career. My compassion, ignorance, naivety and poor judgment had combined to make me a victim to a much older lady with super cunning sense that was mixed with a vicious and diabolical nature. I stand accused but calmly accepted my responsibility for the sad misadventure that caused me to be a seat-mate with Sophia on a plane that was flying nowhere.
“All along, I have only been generous with Sophia without knowing for sure I was the father to the baby she was carrying. On May 14, 2015, Sophia delivered her baby, named Imade. It was after Sophia had delivered the baby that DNA test confirmed that I was indeed the biological father of our child, named Imade,” he said.
According to the musician, once the DNA test confirmed that he was the father of the child, Sophia decided to show her true colour and started to apply maximum financial demands on him. “I bought all the baby things and fully furnished her apartment. Sophia knew well how to spend money and yet contributed zero to the vast expenses that I incurred. None in her family contributed even a fake coin to the cost of having Imade.
“Uncle Dele Momodu, now the pompous moralist, never visited Sophia or even delivered an ordinary greeting card to Imade or to her mum. Throughout the many months that Sophia stayed at my house when she claimed she has no family in Lagos, Uncle Dele Momodu and his bossy wife never showed up at my house to say hello to either of us.
“When the going was good, Sophia had told me plenty things about her uncle, Dele Momodu, that I need not repeat here. And she never invited me to go with her to visit him and I don’t have the knowledge that she ever visited him throughout the time she stayed in my house. She always explained that a visit to Uncle Dele was needless and unnecessary. Uncle Dele Momodu never liked, and still does not like Sophia. He is now just grandstanding because Sophia had a baby for a fairly prominent family and famous Davido.”
If the intervention of Dele Momodu had irked Davido, Momodu’s wife’s dabbling into the matter baffled him even more.
“Why did she not think it necessary to move to Sophia’s apartment to help her out and show her the tricks of motherhood when Imade was newly born?” Davido asked rhetorically. “Not once did she visit Sophia and her baby until December 2015. She gave neither care, love nor financial support to Sophia. Now, at seven months old, and a child with special medical needs, Mrs. Momodu rushed to the Lagos Airport to make an awful botch of her standing as a mother: Mrs. Momodu is certainly not a good person. She put time and energy to prevent my daughter and I, the real father of Imade, from travelling abroad to keep an appointment with the American Hospital, Dubai. At the point of dying in November 2015, Imade had been rushed to this medical facility in Dubai, where she received helpful and adequate treatment and was duly returned to Nigeria, without any side excursions.
“What then suddenly propels the fear or dangerous love of Mr. & Mrs. Momodu for Sophia? I deeply sense this couple never loved Sophia nor her late father. They also resent her mum, and probably are jealous that Sophia ever became a mum herself, and thus, wish that Sophia’s daughter who is also my daughter, must needlessly perish.
“Where is the inherent value in a callous human ploy that directly intends to prevent a child from receiving necessary medical care abroad once the biological father, David Adeleke, the child’s grandfather and all my siblings, who are uncles and aunties to Imade, are booked to fly on this essential medical trip to which we have attached a restful family vacation? Sophia ain’t a member of our family, period.”
However, contrary to the rumour making the round that Davido wanted to relocate Imade to the United States of America without the consent of her mother, the artiste said it was a blatant lie.
He said: “The claim has been made that the aborted trip to Dubia was to take Imade to America. This is not true. Imade’s Nigerian passport is right now with the Immigration Office with no American Visa embossed on it and Imade, though qualified to possess an American passport because her dad is an American citizen, still does not possess an American passport. True, her passport is being processed but the truancy of her mother has caused a major delay. I, therefor, ask how will Imade have entered America without a visa on her Nigerian passport?”
Explaining himself further, Davido hit the nail on the head, saying Sophia was not his wife and could never be his wife. “Sophia is not my wife and I refuse to let any action conspire to make us look like a couple,” he stated.
While appealing to Dele Momodu to leave him and his family alone, Davido said there was never a time Sophia introduced the Ovation Magazine publisher to him, as her uncle.
“Mr. Dele Momodu should just leave me and my family alone! His daughter is not who had a baby for me and he has been too much of an absentee uncle to Sophia to have any traction on the moral authority that commands the soul and heart of this matter. Sophia never formally introduced him nor his wife to me, at anytime. Why are they now crowding my space and that of my daughter?” he said.
Dele Momodu, who has been caught in the crossfire  said he was constrained to wade into the matter last September, following a phone call he got from Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, father of the ace musician and  a long time family friend, informing him his son had fathered a baby girl with his cousin.
“In September 2015, I got a call from Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, a long time family friend, telling me his son had fathered a baby girl with my cousin, Sophia Momodu. I rejoiced with him as any reasonable soul would do. He apologised that he had not called all along because he wasn’t sure if Sophie’s baby was going to turn out a fake one like that of two others, who had turned up at his doorstep. But mercifully, according to Dr. Adeleke, Sophia’s baby passed the DNA test by over 98 per cent and he was elated. I congratulated him again, as a proud grandfather. He said he would like to meet me with Sophia since Sophia’s dad, Uncle Jibola Momodu, passed on years ago and Sophia mentioned me as her cousin….,” Momodu said in a memo.
The matter, however, spiralled into controversy, following attempt by the Adelekes to ‘snatch’ the baby from the mother and take her abroad, without the mother’s consent.