Nigerian musician Davido has been ordered by a U.S. court to appear in New York within 21 days to face charges related to stealing intellectual property and failing to settle a $45,000 debt.
The lawsuit, filed on April 4, 2025, in the Southern District of New York, was brought by four Nigerian artistes—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru.
The plaintiffs accused Davido of taking their 2022 song “Work” and using it without permission to create his 2024 track “Strawberry on Ice.”
The plaintiffs claimed that, after sharing the demo with Davido in January 2022, they were left out of any collaboration plans.
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Instead, Davido allegedly passed the song to Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, known professionally as Emmerson, who used the instrumental and vocal parts of “Work” to produce the new song.
Attempts to resolve the issue were unsuccessful, despite Davido agreeing in March 2025 to pay $45,000 and offer royalties to the plaintiffs.
He also promised to share 40% of the royalties from the composition and 20% from the sound recording.
However, he failed to make the payment by the agreed deadline, prompting the plaintiffs to take legal action.
The lawsuit demanded that the court rule on the intellectual property infringement and order Davido and his collaborators to pay $150,000 in damages.
The plaintiffs also sought a transfer of the relevant copyright shares and ask the court to prevent further infringements of their work.
