Nigerian Afrobeats singer David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has been summoned by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan and mandated to appear before it within 21 days to answer charges of intellectual property theft brought against him by four Nigerians.
According to legal filings, the matter started in January of 2022, when the plaintiffs, Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena, allegedly gave a demo of their song “Work” to Davido, hoping for a possible collaboration. However, the plaintiffs claimed that instead of working with them, Davido took the song to a music producer, Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, professionally known as Emmerson, who went ahead to steal and sample the recorded instrumental and vocals of the song and further created their version, which was titled “Strawberry on Ice” in 2024.
To resolve the issue, Davido, who is being sued alongside five others, Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, Carlos Jenkins, Mathew Quinney, Marques Miles, and Wynn Records, was said to have, on March 14, reached an agreement with the group to pay a lump sum of $45,000, 40 per cent of royalties for the underlying composition of the song, and 20 per cent royalties for the sound recording of the song.
However, Davido was said to have defaulted on the terms of the agreement despite promising to pay before the March 24 deadline as agreed upon by the parties. This action prompted the group to seek redress in court.
In the suit, which was filed on the 4th of April, the plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 in compensation, 40 per cent royalties on compositional copyright for “Strawberry on Ice,” and 20 per cent royalties of the sound recording copyright of the song.
The plaintiffs also asked the court to ban the singer and his co-defendants in the matter from participating in any action that would infringe on the plaintiffs’ future copyrights.
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