The Assistant Inspector General of Police is reported to have ordered the arrest of popular pop singer David Adeleke otherwise called Davido, over an on-going assault case.
A month ago, the Crime Digest of Punch Newspapers reported that the singer had allegedly assaulted a taxi driver Femi Ajibola at Beni Apartments in Victoria Island in Lagos.
Davido however denied the allegations.
His publicist Valeri Obaze told NET at the time, that the artiste would
not be commenting on the issue as the incident was ‘under
investigation’. Things seemed to have died down and Davido flew out of
the country.
But the matter has exploded again as
those close to Ajibola say he is ‘hell bent on making sure justice is
served’. New developments have arisen from the July 1 incident and all
don’t seem to be in favour of the 19-year-old.
For starters, Davido’s cousins, HKN Gang members Sinarmabo and B.Red have been roped into the assault case as a certain Hashiru Azeez
who Crime Digest reports as Ajibola’s employers says that Davido
himself said that the taxi driver was assaulted by his cousins.
Azeez is said to have given Ajibola a
Toyota Corolla on hire purchase. This is the same vehicle he used in
transporting Susie, the lady who reportedly hired Ajibola to transport
her to Davido.
‘I gave it out to him on hire
purchase. When Ajibola initially told me about this matter, I did not
believe him. Later, I went to Beni’s Apartment in company with Sgt Nuru
Umar, who is the Investigating Police Officer, and we found out that he
was right’, Hashiru Azeez explains.
‘We went to the DPO and he called Davido’s father after I took time to explain who the boy was’, Azeez added.
Surprisingly, there is now a fresh allegation that Susie is threatening Ajibola.
‘I got a call from Ajibola that
Susan allegedly went to the park to threaten him. She said that if he
was claiming that he lost N100,000 during the incident with Davido, she
would pay the money. Then she asked if the cab driver had forgotten that
she lost her cell-phone, which was valued at N175,000’, Azeez keeps explaining.
‘She said that Ajibola would have to
produce her phone because he was the one that took them to the hotel in
his cab. She added that she would deal with him,” he added.
Azeez said this was when he decided to
report the matter to the nearest Police Station which was in Maroko on
the outskirts of Lagos. But since the case had initially been reported
at the Bar Beach Police Station, Ajibola was directed to go and lodge
his complaint there.
The influential Adelekes had however
been aware of what was going on after a petition had been written on
Ajibola’s behalf to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge
of Zone 2 about the incident. Azeez says they invited the driver Ajibola
for a meeting.
‘A lawyer, Malachy Ukwamadu, wrote a
petition on our behalf to the AIG Zone 2. We had written the petition
even before the publication. Somehow, the Adeleke family got to know
that we had written a petition and they got someone to ask me to come
with Ajibola to the Bar Beach Police Station. They said they would bring
Davido to the station. The boy had surrendered himself and the police
were ready to prosecute him. It was hard to believe, but I was
optimistic’, the car dealer said.
But Azeez said he was advised not to
honour the invitation by a policeman who warned that the case might be
tilted to the advantage of Davido.
‘The policeman warned that there was
an ulterior motive behind the invitation. He said the moment that
Ajibola stepped into the Bar Beach Police Station; the case would change
and turn against him. This prompted us to invite a lawyer to go to the
station instead of Ajibola. Ukwamadu was out of town. So, we invited
Barrister Ademola Olamide. While we waited for them to bring Davido, the
IPO told the lawyer that they wanted to negotiate’.
‘Olamide insisted the other party
bring over Davido why was it that it was the police that wanted to
negotiate. Should they not be neutral?’
The meeting eventually happened – ‘Davido
said that he was not the one that assaulted Ajibola. He said that the
guys we were claiming were his bodyguards were actually his cousins. He
said that it was Bayo (B.Red) one of his cousins, who beat up Ajibola’, Azeez says.
But Azeez was not buying any of that; he then asked what business Bayo had with Susie since she was Davido’s girlfriend.
‘We told him that from his
conversation, Susan was his girlfriend and why would Bayo beat up Susan?
At a point, they said that they would like to compensate Ajibola and
that they wanted to know how much Ajibola made in a day’.
“They said that they would pay two
weeks’ earnings. I was not there when they were discussing the money
issue. I told my lawyer that there was no basis for compensation since
he denied assaulting Ajibola. I said he should produce those who beat up
Ajibola, that the police should do their job and we would know what
step to take from there’, he said.
Azeez says Ajibola’s car keys have not been returned to him.
Reports say the Police Public Relations
Officer, Zone 2 Police Command, Femi Balogun, hasconfirmed that the case
is being handled by his command. He said that the AIG had ordered that
Davido should be brought before him with the Toyota Corolla used as
taxi.
Davido is currently in the US where he recently shot two videos off his debut album ‘Omo Baba Olowo: The Genesis’.
While the singer was not immediately
available for comments, Valeri Obaze, his publicist told us via E-mail,
that she ‘will get back to us’
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