CITIZENS COMPASS –The Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, has advised his niece, Sophia Momodu, and Nigerian pop star,David Adeleke popularly known as Davido over the ongoing feud about the custody of their daughter. 

The publisher shared his opinion in a terse message on his social media handles.

The message titled, “My candid opinion on David Adeleke vs Sophia Momodu, offers his piece of advice to the pop star. 

Momod’s view was occasioned by Davido’s statement that he would discontinuing the custody battle of his daughter Imade following Sophia’s comment about the death of his son, Ifeanyi.

Earlier, Sophia had filed a counter case at the Lagos State High Court on April 17, 2024, against Davido’s request to be granted custody of their daughter Imade.

The suit, marked LD/1587PMC/2024, has as applicant Mr David Adedeji Adeleke, while Ms Sophia Momodu was listed as the sole Respondent which stated that their daughter “is a minor (9 years old) and as her mother, she has stayed with me all her life and I have been responsible for her welfare, upkeep, and well-being.”

Sophia pleaded with the court, “That the Applicant, in his capacity as an artiste, always travels and allows many unsavory male adults around him and his house, who will not be a good influence on an impressionable young female child, like our daughter.

“The Applicant disagreed with child therapy as the Applicant has been estranged from our daughter for a while and safely and sustainably establishing a meaningful presence in our daughter’s life is paramount.

“The Applicant is an artist who always travels around the world as mandated by his career and cannot possibly be with our daughter at crucial times.

“The Applicant is married to another woman, and they live together. The proper upbringing of our daughter by another cannot be guaranteed.

“The fact that the Applicant lost his son in his house in rather unfortunate and questionable circumstances shows that our daughter cannot be placed in the custody of the Applicant”, the suit read in part.

Responding to Sophia’s suit through his X Handle, Davido criticised Sophia for referring to Ifeanyi’s death which he claimed had caused an incurable wound to his family.

 “You can have her.”

‘‘You’re constantly bringing up the death of my child at any point u can to just remind us of this tragedy that haunts us every day of our lives .. Imade will grow up to see I fought for her .. as for now u can have her .. P.S she won’t be a child forever .. enjoy Imade Aurora Adeleke! Your father loves you!’’ Davido wrote on Twitter.

‘‘You’re constantly bringing up 

Meanwhile, Momodu in his statement wrote, “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. 

“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. 

“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. 

“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. “ThereThere was no car dedicated to David’s daughter. And so on. Mercifully, I mentioned it 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. 

“Sophia allowed David access to their daughter provided she has her nanny around 24/7. The 9-year old herself made this request and I believe this should be favorably considered and accepted. My grand niece had been released to go out with her cousins on several occasions. 

The Governor’s daughter, Nike, was at Sophia’s house with the Governor’s grandson last Christmas Day, despite the fact that there wasn’t ample notice & she still granted access. 

“Two months ago, the Governor’s son, Sina Rambo, requested a play date between the kids & Sophia rented out a children’s place in Victoria Island for them to spend hours together. The only time  she couldn’t join her father’s family was when her grandfather requested to go on vacation with her for three weeks last year, as the notice was too short, and Sophia had already paid for their own trips, due to lack of communication between the parents…”