
A taxi driver, Femi Ajibola, will never forget July 1, 2012 in a hurry. At about 5.30 pm on that day, he received a phone call from a young woman in the Lekki area of Lagos and had quickly answered the subsequent invitation to pick her up.
“The
lady introduced her as Susie. She called me to come and pick her and
her friend. They told me to come pick them up at Mobolaji Estate near
Lekki Second Roundabout. Later, I took them to a hotel at Lekki Phase I
to meet one of their friends.
“From
there we left for Beni Apartment in Victoria Island. They said that I
should wait for them and promised to be back soon. Not long afterwards,
one of the girls began to scream as she was coming towards my car.
Behind her, I saw David Adeleke (Davido) and four of his bouncers.
“The
girl was running towards me. I think they men had assaulted her. She
said I should open the door for her so that she would enter. I opened
the door for her; as she was about to enter the car, Davido caught up
with her and slapped her face,” Ajibola said.
In
a bid to save the girl from further assault, Ajibola switched on the
engine of his cab and was about to drive off when the youthful singer
suddenly dealt him a slap.
The
cabbie said, “He left the girl and faced me. He said I was the one that
brought the girls, that I am their boyfriend. He knocked my face
against the steering wheel of the cab. This made blood begin to come out
from my ear drums. He seized my car keys and in the process, injured
me.
“Before
I knew what was going on, his four bouncers began to beat me up. They
beat me severely and took my car keys from me and chased me away. This
happened around 11 pm. I went to report the matter at the Bar Beach
Police Station, which was the nearest one. I was asked to come back the
next morning to report the case.”
Unfortunately,
Ajibola had just taken delivery of the vehicle he was using for his
transport business and had not paid the dealer in full before the
incident. He said that the balance of N100,000 was in the car before the
incident had happened. In the whole confusion, he could not pick the
money as he was ordered to leave the car by the bouncers.
“I
had taken delivery of the vehicle about two weeks before the incident. I
had paid my dealer N50,000 and the other N100,000 was in the car
because I could not pay it in the bank. The money was in the car and
since they had sent me away from the car, I could not retrieve it.
“The
following day, I did not find the money in the cab. They did not even
let me wind the car windows up before they chased me out. I noticed that
the car was ransacked. I managed to obtain Davido’s phone number and
called him. But he did not pick his call. So I sent him a text message.
Thirty minutes after I sent him the message, someone picked up the call
and promised to pass the message to him. I did not get my car key
throughout that day. I went to the police station to file a report,”
Ajibola said.
“When all efforts to contact Davido proved futile, the police had to go to Susie. Unfortunately, she was of no help.”
“On
the fourth day, I went to Susie’s house with the police. The ladies
said they were not the ones that beat me. They said the only help they
could render was to give me Davido’s address and that they had since
settled their differences. The whole point of the police visit was to
use the girls to get to Davido, but the girls made a phone call to an
aunt of theirs and the policemen left them, saying that they were not
the ones that assaulted me,” the cab driver said.
CRIME DIGEST learnt that the genesis of the fight was because the singer was allegedly caught cheating on his girlfriend.
Ajibola
continued, I learnt that Davido was dating one of the girls I picked
up. They went to his hotel room and caught him with another girl who was
their friend. This is what I learnt caused the fight. The police
collected Davido’s phone number and called him, but he kept asking them
if they knew whose son he was.
“He
warned the policemen not to threaten or intimidate him. They in turn
told him that they were just inviting him for questioning and not to
arrest him. Since then, the effort to get him has not been forthcoming.
I had to go to the hospital because I was really injured. Davido gave
me a blow to the ear which made it to bleed.
“One
day, the DPO of the station assured me that they would make sure they
get him. He was irritated by Davido’s boasting that he was immune to
arrest. On July 13, one Sharon Adeleke asked me to come and collect the
key of my car at 1004. I told her to come and meet me at the police
station. She did not turn up till the DPO intervened.
“The
DPO invited the Sharon Adeleke, she eventually came to drop the key of
the car. I told them that I could not just collect the key of the car
without documentation that they gave me the key of the car without a
penny, though I lost money and my car got damaged. When I said this, the
DPO told me that I did not look like someone that was worth N100,000.
“He
said I have no proof that there was money in the car and that all he
was after was to retrieve my car keys for me. He said that if I wanted
to do anything I should go to court and he ordered me out of his office.
Till this moment I have not received my car keys or an apology from the
singer,” Ajibola said.
When
contacted on the telephone, both Davido and the Divisional Police
Officer of Bar Beach police station, Fakeye Adegoke, refused to answer
their calls nor did they reply the text messages sent to them.
But Davido’s publicist, Valerie Obaze, denied her client’s involvement in the incident.
“Davido
has no knowledge of any incident involving the assault of a taxi driver
or the illegal seizure of his car. He does not condone violence of any
sort and will not be commenting on this untrue allegation,” she said via
email
However,
the Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide promised to get back
to CRIME DIGEST with the facts of the matter later.
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