A U.S. court has issued a directive for Nigerian music star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, to appear within 21 days in connection with allegations of intellectual property theft.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan issued the summons, following a lawsuit filed by four Nigerian musicians—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru—according to documents cited by Peoples Gazette.
The lawsuit accuses Davido of copying their 2022 track, titled Work, and repurposing it into his 2024 release, Strawberry on Ice. The plaintiffs contend that elements of their song were used without permission, forming the basis of the version Davido eventually released.
Others named in the lawsuit include Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (known as Emmerson), who featured on Strawberry on Ice, alongside Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records—the company responsible for releasing the song.
The legal filing claims the artists shared a demo of Work with Davido in January 2022, seeking collaboration while aiming for exposure in the industry. Rather than pursuing the proposed partnership, the artists allege that Davido handed over the demo to Emmerson, who “sampled the individual recorded instrumental and vocal elements of ‘Work’ without permission to create ‘Strawberry on Ice.’”
To address the dispute, the parties reportedly reached an agreement on March 14, 2025, which required Davido to pay $45,000 and grant the plaintiffs 40 percent of the royalties from the song’s composition and 20 percent from the sound recording.
However, Davido allegedly failed to uphold his side of the agreement by not paying the amount by the agreed March 24 deadline, despite assurances that the funds would be delivered.
Consequently, the artists filed a formal complaint in New York on April 4, demanding that the court recognize the alleged infringement of their creative rights. The plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 in damages, in addition to the transfer of 40 percent of the compositional copyright and 20 percent of the sound recording copyright for Strawberry on Ice.
They have also asked the court to issue an injunction to prevent Davido and the other defendants from “further infringing upon the plaintiffs’ copyrights or engaging in actions that would infringe upon their future works.”
