Davido's Legal Scandal: The $45,000 Debt Struggle

According to court documents seen by Peoples Gazette, Nigerian artist David "Davido" Adeleke has been given 21 days to come before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan to respond to allegations of intellectual property theft.

Four Nigerian musicians—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru—filed the complaint, alleging that Davido had stolen their 2022 song "Work" and used it to compose his own soundtrack, "Strawberry on Ice," in 2024.

Davido was sued along with Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, better known by his stage as Emmerson, who was featured on the musician's song, and Wynn Records, the record label in charge of publishing and distributing "Strawberry on Ice."

As per the court documents, the case began in January 2022 when the plaintiffs, acting in good faith, offered Davido the demo of "Work" as part of a possible partnership between the parties. This was driven by the group's pursuit of a significant breakthrough in the music industry.

But the plaintiffs said that rather than collaborating with the group, Davido took the song to Emmerson without their consent. Emmerson then stole and sampled individual recorded vocal and instrumental parts of the "Work" to make their own rendition of "Strawberry on Ice."

To resolve the issue amicably, the plaintiffs immediately reached out to Davido and were finally able to get hold of their Grammy-nominated musician after several months and he subsequently entered an agreement with the group to pay a lump sum of $45,000 in settlement on March 14, 2025, court documents showed.

Davido also agreed to give the plaintiffs 40 per cent of royalties for the underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice” and 20 per cent royalties for sound recording of the song. However, Davido failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement despite promising to pay before a March 24 deadline agreed upon by all parties.

Davido’s actions prompted the plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the singer alongside his co-defendants in New York on April 4.

In their filings, the plaintiffs are asking the court to rule that Davido and his co-defendants infringed on the intellectual property of “’Work.’’ They are also seeking $150,000 in damages and the transfer of 40 per cent of “Strawberry on Ice” compositional copyright and 20 per cent in sound recording copyright of the song to plaintiffs.

Additionally, the plaintiffs requested that the court prohibit the singer and other defendants from engaging in any additional infringement of the group's copyrights or from taking any involvement in any future actions that would violate the plaintiffs' copyrights.


A spokesman for Wynn Records declined to comment on Wednesday, while Davido did not respond to a request for comment from DoroTV.