Nigerian music artiste David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has been summoned by a United States federal court to appear in New York within a period of 21 days to respond to allegations of intellectual property violations and breach of settlement, following a suit by four Nigerian artistes.
In a Thursday report by the People’s Gazette, court documents submitted at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, indicated the plaintiffs, Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru, accused Davido of swiping their 2022 hit ‘Work’ and using it to create his 2024 track ‘Strawberry on Ice’.The court documents claimed the plaintiffs had performed the demo of ‘Work’ to Davido in January 2022 expecting a collabo to get more exposure in the music world. Rather, they accused Davido of stealing the song and collaborated with Sierra Leonean musician Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, professionally known as Emmerson, to recreate the song, incorporating both instrumental and vocal material from the original demo.
Davido was also named in the suit alongside Emmerson, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records, the record label that released and distributed ‘Strawberry on Ice’. The plaintiffs, in a desperate attempt to resolve the dispute out of court, claimed that they finally got through to Davido after several months and executed a settlement agreement on March 14, 2025. According to the agreement, Davido was to compensate the group an amount of $45,000 and provide them with 40% of the composition royalties and 20% of the sound recording royalties of ‘Strawberry on Ice’. But Davido allegedly failed the agreed payment date of March 24, 2025, and the plaintiffs instituted legal action on April 4.
The group, in their lawsuit, prayed that the court make a decision declaring that the intellectual property right to ‘Work’ was infringed. The group also requested damages amounting to $150,000 as well as an order by the court for transferring 40% of the composition copyright and 20% of the sound recording copyright of ‘Strawberry on Ice’ to them.
Further, the plaintiffs requested that an injunction be issued that would prevent Davido and his co-defendants from further using or profiting from the song or infringing any of their subsequent copyrights.
Davido had not responded to requests for comment up to press time on Thursday. Neither did Wynn Records comment on the matter.
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