Popular Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, popularly called Davido, has been ordered by United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, to appear before it to answer charges of intellectual property theft.
eelive.ng reports that four Nigerian artistes, namely Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru, had filed a lawsuit, accusing Davido of stealing their 2022 song ‘Work.’
According to the plaintiffs, Davido used their song to create his own track, titled ‘Strawberry on Ice,’ released in 2024.
The Afrobeats singer, was named in the suit alongside Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, as well as Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records, the agency responsible for publishing and distributing “Strawberry on Ice.”
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According to the legal filings, the four Nigerians artistes in a bid to collaborate with Davido, had in January 2022, shared a demo of the song, Work. However, the plaintiffs allege that instead of collaborating, Davido took the song to Emmerson, who then sampled the individual recorded instrumental and vocal elements of ‘Work’ without permission to create “Strawberry on Ice.”
To resolve the matter, the plaintiffs reached out to Davido, and after several months, they were able to secure an agreement on March 14, 2025. The agreement stipulated that Davido would pay $45,000 in settlement, as well as give the plaintiffs 40 percent of the royalties for the underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice” and 20 percent of the royalties for the sound recording of the song. However, Davido failed to meet the terms of the agreement, despite promising to pay before the agreed-upon March 24 deadline.
In response to Davido’s action, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Davido and his co-defendants on April 4 in New York.
They requested a court ruling declaring that Davido and his co-defendants infringed upon the intellectual property rights associated with “Work.”
They are seeking damages of $150,000, along with the transfer of 40 percent of the compositional copyright and 20 percent of the sound recording copyright for “Strawberry on Ice” to the plaintiffs.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs ask the court to prevent the defendants from continuing to infringe upon their copyrights or engaging in any actions that could infringe upon their future works.
