Dele Momodu, publisher of Ovation magazine, has broken his silence on the custody battle between Sophia and Davido.
The former lovers have been in the news in the past months
over the custody of Imade, their 9-year-old daughter.
In April, the Afrobeats star filed a motion through his
lawyers Olaniyi Arije and Okey Barrah at the Lagos high court, seeking the
court’s order granting him “unrestricted access” to Imade.
In her response to the lawsuit, Sophia argued that she has
never denied Davido access to their daughter.
Weighing on the matter in a lengthy post shared on X on
Saturday, Momodu, uncle to Sophia, said “to the best of my knowledge”, the
joint custody of Imade was not an issue between the former lovers.
The 64-year-old businessman said the main issues were
financial support, including school fees, accommodation, and a nanny’s salary.
The motivational speaker added that he believed the lack of
communication between Davido and Sophia had led to their custody battle.
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Read the full post below:
Last night, I received a distressing message from Mr David
Adeleke (aka Davido). He was obviously devastated by the counter-affidavit
submitted in court, earlier in the day, in response to his affidavit seeking a
joint custody of his daughter with my niece Sophia Momodu.
I had seen David’s affidavit about two weeks ago and I was
very surprised as David and I had spoken on a video call days earlier, with him
and Pastor Tobi Adegboyega, and he never told me he had any custody issues
with my niece. So you can imagine my
confusion to find out via social media and subsequently confirmed by my niece that
he had filed an action in court seeking joint custody of their daughter.
During the referenced video call, we were all very excited
about his forthcoming wedding ceremony, an event our family congratulated him
about. Prior to this, David had told me he eventually spoke to their daughter,
after a long lull of about two years.
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He was very happy and excited. So I thought everything was
settled and he and Sophia would now have the opportunity of taking maximum care
of their daughter. I had offered special thanks to David’s Dad, Dr Adedeji
Adeleke, for his kindness and support for our daughter during the period of
David’s absence.
I had also taken Sophia and their daughter to my very dear
friend, Governor Ademola Adeleke, seeking his intervention. To the best of my
knowledge, there was never a problem of joint custody.
The issues were: non-payment of school fees for several
sessions; non-payment of accommodation and salaries of a nanny. There was no
car dedicated to David’s daughter. And so on. Mercifully, I mentioned all to Dr
Adedeji Adeleke and he responded positively, like a true grandfather.
On the issue of non-payment of school fees, David’s Dad
cleared everything and also set up payments of future bills. He gave his grand
daughter a car to take her to school. The remaining issue was on accommodation.
David’s Dad verbally offered, in his discussions with me,
one of their family apartments in Oniru Estate, Victoria Island, however, maybe
due to miscommunication, David’s lawyers had communicated otherwise. After
Sophia clarified from me, she politely declined the offer, and her reason was
tenable in my view, because, since she’s not married to David, she can’t be
comfortable living in a place swarming with David’s family members.
She and her daughter had been living in Ikoyi before David
and Sophia started their latest quarrels. Sophia’s request was that David
should pay half of the accommodation while she would pay the other half. David
said he could only contribute N5million annually.
My opinion is that the absence of camaraderie between David
and Sophia has caused this debacle. I have cautioned repeatedly that their
daughter must not be allowed to suffer or be treated like a second class child.
David’s global status makes this imperative.
MY CANDID OPINION ON DAVID ADELEKE vs SOPHIA MOMODU
— Dele Momodu Ovation (@DeleMomodu) July 6, 2024
By DELE MOMODU
Last night, I received a distressing message from Mr David Adeleke (aka Davido). He was obviously devastated by the counter-affidavit submitted in court, earlier in the day, in response to his affidavit seeking… pic.twitter.com/6PaonvALqM
Sophia earlier alleged that Davido once connived with his sisters
to kidnap Imade.
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