Davido and Family Accused of Child Abduction

Davido-and-Sophie
In a report considered to be shocking, pop
star Davido and other members of his family
have been accused of trying to abduct
Davido’s baby girl Imade Adeleke from her
mother Sophia Momodu.

According to a petition addressed to the
director general National Agency for the
Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and
made available by Naij.com, the ‘Aye’
crooner’s sister Ashley Coco Adeleke and his
father Mr Deji Adeleke yesterday, Tuesday,
December 29, allegedly tried to travel to Dubai
with the baby but were stopped by Mrs.
Modupe Mofikoya, an immigration officer who
attended to the Adeleke travelling party.
However Davido’s manager, Kamal Ajiboye,
Davido’s manager has denied the allegations
raised in the petition. Instead claiming that
Imade’s mum was a drug addict. So the child
had to be taken from her.
“The baby was taken away from her due
induced drugs found in her (baby) system
which she obivioly got through the mother’s
breast. David’s family is only helping her and
the baby,” he said. David’s family prevented
him (David) from reporting her to the NDLEA
and as we speak, the baby was recently
treated in Dubai. The baby cannot even
breathe properly. The family has done
everything to take care of the mother and
child. We rented an apartment for her and she
gets three hundred thousand naira monthly as
upkeep. What else will the family do? To be
honest, not sane family will take a child away
from the mother for no reason,” Kamal
explained.
As more details of this story emerges, be rest
assured that The herald will keep you
updated.

Read the full petition below.

December 30, 2016

The Director General
National Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons
No. 2028 Delaba Street
Wuse Zone 5

FCT, Abuja

Dear Madam,

PETITION AGAINST MISS ASHLEY COCO
ADELEKE & MR ADEDEJI ADELEKE FOR
ATTEMPTED CHILD TRAFFICKING AND
ABDUCTION OF MISS AURORA IMADE
ADELEKE

We act as Solicitors for Miss. Sophia Ajibola
Momodu, (hereinafter referred to as our client)
whose instructions we have to forward this
petition to your esteemed Agency.
Our client, a 27 year old, is the biological
mother of a baby girl with name, Aurora
Imade Adeleke, who was born on the 14th day
of May 2015. The baby’s father is Mr. David
Adedeji Adeleke (aka Davido). The father and
mother are unmarried.
On the 11th July, 2015, our client was tricked
to visit the house of Mr. David Adedeji
Adeleke’s half sister – Miss Ashley Coco
Adeleke’s with her baby, Imade Aurora
Adeleke. After getting to the house on
Baderinwa Alabi Street, Lekki Phase I, Lagos,
our client’s baby was forcefully taken from
her and she was thrown out of the premises
with the threat that she would be decisively
dealt with if she ever bothered to return there.
There were armed policemen in the premises
and our client’s survival instinct prevailed on
her to make her leave her breast suckling
baby behind, with so much pain in her heart.
By daybreak on the next day, our client was
again at Ashley Coco Adeleke’s house to take
her baby, but she was prevented by armed
policemen from gaining access into the
house. She was again threatened and warned
never to return for the child.
Since July 2015, our client, who has now
become so disorientated, saddened and
confused has been going to family members,
including her cousin, Mr Dele Momodu, and
other well meaning Nigerians to intervene and
allow her get her baby back or at least allow
her to be able to have access to and care for
her daughter. This was frustrated by Coco
Adeleke, David Adeleke and their father, Mr.
Adedeji Adeleke. These people boasted to our
client and all her family and friends that our
client is a nonentity and of little substance in
Nigeria. They also claim that they have the
financial wherewithal and political and
security clout to deal with her and her family
anyhow and without any consequence with
the aid of their brother and uncle, Senator
Isiaka Adeleke, and other friends Mr Deji
Adeleke purportedly has in government. In a
bid to justify their actions, Mr Deji Adeleke
and his daughter, Ashley Coco Adeleke, have
been spreading several malicious and
unfounded allegations about our client.
While the attempts at finding a peaceful and
lasting solution were still ongoing, on Tuesday
the 29th December 2015, Ashley Coco
Adeleke and her father, Mr Deji Adeleke, tried
to travel to Dubai with our client’s baby.

The baby was meant to be flown out of the
country with Nigerian and American
passports. Prior to that date, our client and
her cousin, Mr Dele Momodu, had gone to
alert the immigration services at the Murtala
Mohammed, Ikeja International airport of the
likelihood of Ashley Coco Adeleke travelling
with our client’s baby by pretending to be the
Mother. Our client believes that her baby’s
American passport was hidden and is now
likely to be in possession of Mr Deji Adeleke
or Ashley Coco Adeleke. It appears that the
assistance of Emirates Airline was sought as
the baby’s American passport was not
produced in breach of aviation regulations.
Neither was a letter of authority from the
mother to confirm her consent to the trip
produced despite the airline being alerted.
When Mrs. Modupe Mofikoya, the immigration
officer who attended to the Adeleke travelling
party accosted Ashley Coco Adeleke and
asked for the mother of the baby, Ashley
Adeleke claimed that she was the mother.
Immediately, the immigration officer on duty
collected her Nigerian international passport,
she quickly absconded from the scene with
the baby and her father, Mr Deji Adeleke,
showed up shortly afterwards to try to clear
his daughter’s mess.
Our client with the help of her family
members, including Mr Dele Momodu,
determinedly resisted the attempt by Miss
Ashley Coco Adeleke and her father, Mr Deji
Adeleke, from taking Aurora Imade Adeleke
from Lagos yesterday. Our client believes that
the pair are trying to take the child to America
and thus put her out of the reach of the
biological mother.
At the moment, Miss Ashley Coco Adeleke
and our client’s daughter, Aurora Imade
Adeleke
are still in Lagos and two of their respective
international passports are in the custody of
the airport immigration services. Our client’s
fear now, is that Ashley Coco may use her
Nigerian passport and Aurora Imade’s
American passport to travel through other
Nigerian or West African airports.
We know that the actions of Mr Deji Adeleke
and Miss Ashley Coco Adeleke contravene
many provisions of the law. One is Section 13
of the Childs Right Law 2007 of Lagos State
(as adapted from the Federal Act), which
guarantees Aurora Imade Adeleke’s right to
parental care and protection. That law also
forbids separation of a child from her parents.
Another is Section 24 of the same law, which
also prohibits abduction of a child from the
lawful custody of her parents. Neither Mr Deji
Adeleke or Ms Ashley Coco Adeleke has any
lawful right to the custody of Aurora Imade
Adeleke. Even the unmarried father, Mr David
Adedeji Adeleke, only has limited rights to the
child and certainly not to the exclusion of our
client, the natural mother as the Adeleke’s are
trying to do.

We are of the sound view that your Agency is
the most viable organisation that can
intervene in the plight of our client and save
her from the untold trauma that she is going
through in the hands of Mr Deji Adeleke and
Ashley Coco Adeleke, who has her own child
that she keeps with her. We have advised our
client about the statutory powers of your
Agency to potently investigate and enforce all
the provisions of the law that deal with
abduction and trafficking in persons.
We urge you to use your good offices to
intervene in the case of our client and protect
a baby who should still be under her mother’s
care from being abducted and smuggled
abroad.

We thank you.

Yours faithfully,

1. O. AJAYI & CO./Gbolaga Ajayi Esq.