Speculations over the relationship between award-winning Afrobeats singer, David Adeleke, better known as Davido, and his long time lover, Chioma Avril Rowland, a.k.a Chef Chi, has been finally put to rest.
Saturday Sun can authoritatively reveal that Chioma’s customary bride price was paid on Friday, November 4, 2022 in a quiet traditional marriage ceremony in Lagos.
The final marriage rites were concluded in Chioma’s hometown in Imo State on Monday January 2, 2023.
It was reliably gathered that Chioma’s kinsmen from Ezeala Odu, Owerre Nkwoji, in Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State, had on Friday, November 4, 2022 hosted Davido’s family, the Adelekes, at Chioma’s family house in Lekki, Lagos, where the traditional marriage took place.
A close source to Chioma’s family, who witnessed the event, said the sudden death of Ifeanyi, the three-year-old son Davido had with Chioma out of wedlock, had sparked-off anger among Chioma’s kinsmen which snowballed into the emergency secret marriage.
Our reliable source, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that Davido had concluded plans for a lavish traditional marriage at Chioma’s town in December 2022, to be followed by a society wedding ceremony this year. Only recently, the A-list artiste announced that he and Chioma would tie the nuptial knots this year, 2023. But the sudden death of Ifeanyi, who drowned in Davido’s swimming pool at his Banana Island residence, had elicited anger among Chioma’s kinsmen, thereby altering the whole plan.
Saturday Sun gathered that upon learning that Ifeanyi was to be buried on Saturday, November 5, 2022, Chioma’s kinsmen quickly summoned an emergency meeting in which they resolved to stop the burial on the grounds that Ifeanyi was their son since Chioma was not legitimately married to Davido, according to Igbo tradition, before the boy’s death.
Narrating the entire episode, our source said:
“When we heard that Ifeanyi was to be buried on that Saturday, my kinsmen quickly convened an emergency meeting here in Lagos. The President General of my town’s union flew in from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for the meeting and was in Lagos the whole of that week. We felt embarrassed and disrespected that our son was going to be buried by strangers. Chioma was not traditionally married to Davido. Traditionally, Ifeanyi was a son of Owerre Nkwoji because in Igbo custom, a concubine cannot lay claim to a child when he has not paid the child’s mother’s dowry.
“We had been angry that our daughter, Chioma, got pregnant with Davido without being legally married to him. Several times, Davido had promised to pay her dowry in a most colourful traditional marriage ceremony, all to no avail. It is an embarrassment that our daughter had a son for him out of wedlock. And then, he wanted to bury our son when he did not marry his mother according to our customs. We said we would not allow that to happen.
“So at the emergency meeting, we summoned Chioma’s father (Mr. Rowland Ejiofor) and asked him to go and tell the Adelekes to come and pay Chioma’s dowry before or by Friday, November 4, 2022, if they must bury Ifeanyi on Saturday, November 5, 2022, as their son, otherwise they should release his dead body to us for burial as our son.
“Since we had no direct dealings with the Adelekes, pressure was on Chioma’s father who is our kinsman, whose daughter was putting our community on the global stage for the wrong reasons. We urged him to convey our message to the Adelekes and then understand that failure to cooperate with us by granting our requests may attract grave consequences to the Adelekes and Chioma’s father.
“We warned Chioma’s father that should Ifeanyi be buried by the Adelekes without paying Chioma’s dowry, we would banish him (Chioma’s father) and his family from our community and order the youths to raze his compound in the village after which we would address a world press on the incident, which would be a bad publicity for the famous Adelekes, especially for Davido’s musical career.”
Our source further disclosed that his kinsmen reminded the Adelekes that they were not interested in their wealth, stressing that all they wanted was to restore their dignity as a people. To make it convenient for the Adelekes, rather than insist on the event being held in Chioma’s home town, Owerre Nkwoji, Imo State, it was scheduled for her family house in Lagos, a property she bought when her relationship with Davido got murky.
He said: “We told the Adelekes that we are not interested in their money. By our customs and tradition, all we needed was about N30,000.00 in lieu of some items that needed to be bought for the traditional marriage and just N1,000.00 which is the actual payment of the dowry.”
Both Chioma’s father and the Adelekes were said to have accepted the position of Chioma’s kinsmen, in order to avoid further scandals to both families. The Adelekes were said to have fixed Friday, November 4, 2022 for the traditional marriage and requested that it be kept top secret from the public. The Adelekes also requested that both parties be represented by six people each. Most importantly, they pleaded that Davido and Chioma be excused from the ceremony and be allowed to mourn their late son. These were after Davido’s father, Mr. Adedeji Adekeke, was said to have extracted his son’s commitment to the marriage.
“We were already at Chioma’s family house here in Lagos on Friday November , when, about 3pm, the whole area was cordoned off by security operatives. I counted about six Hilux vans. Leading the delegation were Davido’s father and his brother, the Osun State governor, then the governor-elect.
“Before the event started, they requested that both parties select six representatives for easier and more effective negotiations. The Adelekes are a wonderful family, very respectful and godly, especially Davido’s father. He apologised for the delay in the traditional marriage between Davido and Chioma and regretted the death of Ifeanyi. He spoke glowingly about Chioma.
“The biggest surprise was how the Osun State Governor, Isiaka Adeleke (then governor-elect), spoke fluently in Igbo language. He’s such an amiable fellow. Although we maintained that we were not interested in their money and insisted on taking only N30,000 for items on the list of traditional marriage rites of our community and N1,000 as the main dowry, the Adelekes brought loads of items, including food and fruits and cash of N5 million.
“We did not accept the N5 million cash, but we all ate bananas and the other fruits they brought and had a wonderful time together,” our source recalled.
Our source further revealed that the traditional marriage rites were rounded off at Ezeala Odu village, Owerre Nkwoji, Imo State, Chioma’s village in n Ezeala Odu, on Monday, January 2, 2023, when Chioma’s kinsmen were officially presented with various items and cash in lieu of the dowry brought by the Adelekes in Lagos.
Meanwhile, following Ifeanyi’s death, Davido’s father has ruled out a lavish society wedding as was proposed by his son this year. Instead, he said he would arrange for a private wedding that would be attended by a few guests in Atlanta, United Sates, after the couple had finished mourning their late son.
(Saturday SUN)
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