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.
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The cab at the scene of the incident
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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.
Culled from Punch
