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 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 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 to induced drugs found in her (baby) system which she obviously 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 nairas monthly as upkeep. What else will the family do? To be honest, not the same family will take a child away from the mother for no reason,” Kamal explained.
As more details of this story emerge, 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
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 (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. 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’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 and their father, Mr Adedeji. 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 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 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 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 the 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,
- O. AJAYI & CO./Gbolaga Ajayi Esq.