U.S. Court Gives Davido Deadline To Appear Over Alleged Stealing, $45,000 Debt

Nigerian musician David Adeleke, better known by his stage name Davido, has been given 21 days to come before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan to respond to allegations of intellectual property theft.

According to legal filings obtained by Peoples Gazette, the lawsuit was filed by four Nigerian artistes—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru.

They said Davido had stolen their song “Work” from 2022. According to the claimants, Davido utilized their song as inspiration for his 2024 single “Strawberry on Ice.”

Davido is listed in the lawsuit along with Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, Wynn Records, the company that published and distributed “Strawberry on Ice,” and Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (professionally known as Emmerson), who was featured on Davido’s song.

According to the legal filings, the issue began in January 2022 when the plaintiffs, in good faith, shared a demo of ‘Work’ with Davido as part of a potential collaboration. The group was seeking a breakthrough in the music industry at the time. 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, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Davido and his co-defendants on April 4 in New York. The plaintiffs are seeking a court ruling that Davido and his co-defendants infringed upon the intellectual property rights of ‘Work.’ They are also seeking $150,000 in damages, as well as the transfer of 40 percent of the compositional copyright and 20 percent of the sound recording copyright of “Strawberry on Ice” to the plaintiffs.

Additionally, they are asking the court to prevent the defendants from further infringing upon the plaintiffs’ copyrights or engaging in actions that would infringe upon their future works.