The 12 Most Controversial Moments in Davido's Career

With fame comes a self-renewing subscription to controversy. This is why several public personalities choose not to court the press or appear in the limelight for too long. Not Davido though who is a sweetheart of the African internetsphere. His larger-than-life persona, has made him quite the controversy magnet but this has not diminished from his grasp on the music scene but rather, fed into it. As the singer paints Twitter in his colours in celebration of his 10 year anniversary in the Nigerian music industry, we‘ve decided to take a look at the controversies that Davido's brand has not only been surrounded with in the past but has also survived. Here are the 12 times Davido has been involved in and survived controversy:

Davido

1. Sonia Jumbo, the first sex scandal

If there was a book on celebrity sex scandals, Davido’s name would be seated beside thousands of other names as a result of how commonplace they are. And while Davido himself has been involved in three of such, his first was one that threatened the very foundation of his then-budding career. 

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It had happened in February 2012 when the singer had only two singles to his discography and had involved pictures of him in bed with an 18-year-old girl as well as a photo where she was licking his tattoos, all leaked on Twitter. The girl in question was Sonia Jumbo, a student of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, who had hooked up with the singer after his performance at her university’s beauty pageant. It also turned out that she was responsible for the leaked pictures. Eventually, she was suspended by her school authority for her actions.

ALSO READ: Davido Reacts To His Kissing Photo With Mya Yafai

2. Davido and the Gobe controversy

When Gobe by Davido was released in 2013, it rapidly became a hit, peaking number 1 on MTV Base’s Official Naija Top Ten. The Gobe crooner, Davido however hit murky waters when an allegation was put forward by a certain Twitter personality with username, ‘GobePassword’ saying Davido stole the song. This scandal was a complex one as there was yet another Twitter persona known as ‘Password’ with verifiable account on which he touted Davido’s praise for doing justice to the song. 

For Davido whose talent had always been questioned and scrutinized by members of the public, this would be the first of such accusations that his name would suffer. 

3. Another sex scandal

Five years after Davido struck out on the music scene, he was struck by yet another sex scandal. This also involved leaked photos but was more brutal as the poster body shamed him, calling him out on the size of his manhood. The photos were shared on Twitter by a user with the handle ‘King_Amarah.’ 

Apparently, the post had been done as a form of revenge porn on behalf of the poster’s friend, a Faith Nketsi. This time, Davido had replied to the poster stating that he wasn’t the one pictured while also mentioning that he hadn’t seen the lady in the picture in two years. 

4. Fans Mi and the NDLEA wahala

On the 9th of June, 2015, Davido had released a single with Philadelphia rapper, Meek Mill, titled Fans Mi. It had come complete with visuals that were obviously inspired by the Atlantan hip-hop scene which the singer had been exposed to. And so the video had comprised of beautiful and curvy women in sexy underwear lounging in the typical millionaire’s lair while the story within had shown Davido trading hard drugs to a tough-looking man who he’d scammed. The drugs had looked like cocaine but were apparently not and Davido had cashed out from the trade-off. 

The NDLEA, National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency had however not been thrilled by the video and had set up an investigation regarding it with the claim that it had glamourised drug dealing.

5. Davido and the Sophia Momodu baby saga

In the early days of 2016, while the new year was still a newborn, Davido had unintentionally provided entertainment for the netizens of the Nigerian internetsphere given his reaction to being accused by Dele Momodu and Sophia Momodu of attempting to kidnap his first daughter, Imade. Dele Momodu, who is a renowned journalist happened to be cousins with Davido’s baby mama, Sophia Momodu and had made several videos of Davido’s dad and his sister as they tried to board a plane going to Dubai. 

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Later on, in a lengthy and detailed rant that the singer had put out, he had explained that they were en-route Dubai for a medical checkup for his first daughter, Imade who had suffered health complications at less than 7 months old due to her mother’s overindulgent lifestyle. He had gone into details about the loveless nature of his relationship with his baby mama as well as her marijuana-reliant lifestyle which had endangered their baby by clogging her lungs. He also accused her cousin, Dele Momodu of trying to strong-arm him into marrying Sophia. 

The controversy had heightened to the point where Davido himself was hospitalised, an incident he’d blamed on Sophia Momodu but refrained to go into details to how she bore responsibility for that. 

6. Pere and the Instrumentals Controversy

As an established megastar, Davido now sits on a long list of international features but back in 2017, his single Pere with Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug was his third. Its release was however met with some controversy as a music producer, HOD, put out a series of tweets accusing Dammy Krane of selling the beats to Davido without compensating him for his work. He had also begun the legal action process as a result. 

A source later mentioned that the beats were produced by American producer DJ Mustard from the beats of 2 On, a single by one-time Davido collaborator, Tinashe. 

7. The Davido controversy about a dud cheque 

Davido has since his second single and his breakout song, Dami Duro, always been referred to as OBO, short for ‘omo baba olowo.’ Later on, with If which was released 4 years ago, he also established the fact that he was by himself, a wealthy man. 

His reputation and claim of having 30 billion in the account was however tarnished some months in 2017 after the release of If by the accusation from a car dealership, Mr. Anekwu Valentine of Prestige Autonet Limited. According to him, he had tried to pay the balance for a Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 with a dud cheque which couldn’t be honoured by the bank. A law firm had in fact been involved with their letter of instruction stating that the firm would take 10 percent of the amount Davido owed if recovered. 

8. The Tagbo, Olu and Chime death saga

Davido has definitely survived a lot of controversies but the gravest is undoubtedly when he lost three friends namely Tagbo, Olu and Chime within a week in October of 2017. 

Tagbo’s death which was due to alcohol-induced suffocation was the first and most incriminating as his dead body had been dropped off at a hospital by Davido’s men by the singer’s request and in his car as well. The singer had however denied knowledge of this and had lied to cover his name. Eventually, he had to be invited twice by the police for questioning. Tagbo’s girlfriend then, Caroline Danjuma as well as an Instagram user, ‘Kellydegreat’, had also put forward impassioned statements on Instagram, claiming that Davido had had a hand in his friend’s death. While the accusation was yet raging, his other friends, Olu and Chime then died three days later in a car at a parking lot with evidence of hard drug usage. 

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The singer had however waded through the controversy and later that year, dedicated the two Afrimma awards he won to his late friends, Tagbo and Olu. 

9. Another money Controversy hits Davido

This time, in April 2018 to be precise, it had involved jewelry to the tune of N60 million from a popular UK-based jeweller known as Kaycee. 

The jeweller had also taken legal steps and stated that Davido had served as a middleman to buy jewelry for his dad’s friend and so other than the sum of the jewelry which he had yet to paid, his store had also footed his flight bill of 2,300 pounds sterling. The singer had however simply commented ‘Lmaooo’ to the Instagram post of the legally written allegations and nothing more was heard of the case. 

Later the next year, Davido’s name was also dragged through social media by a certain man who had been promised a million naira by the singer for assisting some ladies who were being harassed at Davido’s 30BG concert, The expectant good Samaritan had made a video stating that he’d made several calls to Davido’s PA, Lati but had not gotten his money. 

Following the release of the video, Davido had then not only paid him the promised N1 million but also invited him to his house for a day out and had won the hearts of many Nigerians by so doing. 

10. The Davido and Burna Boy controversy and clash

Despite its mysterious nature, the Davido and Burna Boy feud which became apparent in May 2019 will go down as one of the greatest feuds in the history of the Nigerian music industry. Their feud had eventually taken a heightened turn in December the next year at a club in Ghana where to date it has yet to be confirmed if they actually exchanged blows and the cause of the altercation remains unknown.

ALSO READ: The History of Burna Boy and Davido’s Beef Broken Down

11. Davido and Chioma love triangle

Davido has over the years proved himself to not only be an ardent loverboy but an unrepentant playboy as well and his relationship with his third baby mama and one time fiancee, Chioma proves this point. 

The couple who have a son, Ifeanyi together, had become an issue of public interest following the Assurance video of 2018 where the singer had cast her as his love interest . Later in the video of One Milli, they’d also had a traditional wedding but in light of the latest developments involving other women, it seems that would not become reality. 

The first sign of this turned out to be a prank where two sisters made a video claiming that one of them had been impregnated and abandoned by Davido. They soon came out to make it known that it was a prank after Davido came down hard on them with legal threats. 

The real trouble in paradise began to brew when news broke that Davido had another baby mama in a London-based makeup artist known as Larissa London. From that moment rumours began to swirl that Chioma and Davido were no longer an item. 

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While it hasn’t been confirmed till date this rumour began to look more likely in March this year after a picture of Davido kissing a woman known as Mya Yafai hit the internet. The artiste has since begun to refer to Chioma as Mama Ifeanyi, relegating their relationship to the link their child gives. 

12. The Victor AD Jowo debacle

On the 10th of May, rumours started to circulate on Twitter that Davido had stolen his romantic number, Jowo, a track off his A Better Time album from Victor AD. 

ALSO READ: Victor AD Debunks Rumour That Davido Stole "Jowo" From Him

These rumours weren’t quelled till Victor AD himself had to come forward to dispel them, stating that he said no such thing and didn’t write the song. He also went ahead to advocate that Davido be allowed to celebrate his 10th year anniversary in peace.

Indeed, Davido's name has been involved in quite the controversy but like a true megastar, he continues to rise through it. Which of these controversies do you remember the most, were you worried for Davido? Shar your memories with us.