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Nigeria’s business magnate, Dr Deji Adeleke, who is also the father of Afrobeats singer Davido, has said DNA tests have confirmed that his son is not the father of a girl, Aanu, who has been at the centre of a long-running paternity dispute.
Adeleke disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking with journalists at his residence in Lagos.
He said multiple DNA tests conducted at different hospitals in Lagos showed that the child was not Davido’s.
According to him, the issue first came to his attention in 2014 when he received a letter from a lawyer in Ibadan alleging that Davido had impregnated a woman identified as Ayo Labinjoh and abandoned the child.
Adeleke said while he was open to accepting additional grandchildren, paternity claims must be confirmed by science.
“I have 14 grandchildren, so what will one more do? Is it that I will not be able to afford to do things for her or bring her into my family? I want more grandchildren, but there is science — DNA. If you say you are my granddaughter and science has proven that you are my granddaughter, I would gladly accept you,” Adeleke said.
He said the lawyer’s letter included photographs of the child, Davido and the woman, as well as a birth certificate, which raised questions for him.
“What caught my attention was that in the record of the birth certificate, it said the full name of the father: Adeleke David, and the full name of the mother: Adeleke Ayotomide. How can she be Adeleke?” he said.
He narrated that after receiving the initial letter, he contacted the child’s mother and assured her that if the girl was confirmed to be his granddaughter, she would be welcomed into the family.
“Immediately I saw this letter, even before calling David, I called this woman and said, ‘Look, I’m not speaking to my son yet, but I’m going to speak to him. But I’ll suggest to you to give me your address in Ibadan,” Adeleke said.
“I’ll send my driver to come and know where you live, but I can assure you that if this girl is my granddaughter, you have no problems with me; I’ll welcome her into my family happily.’ She was happy. She gave me her address, and I gave the address to my driver.”
He said he later arranged for the woman, the child and the child’s grandmother to travel from Ibadan to Lagos for the DNA test.
“And I called her, gave her the information that anytime they were ready, I would send my driver to pick them up from Ibadan. So, on the appointed day, I sent my driver to Ibadan. Very early, my driver brought the mother of the child, the grandmother, and the baby. The three of them came.
“And because my driver knows Vedic Hospital, they were already there before I came in with David, because I asked David to come here, and his aide, Lati. So David, I, and Lati met them at Vedic Hospital. We went upstairs where the samples were taken.”
Adeleke noted that the samples were collected at Vedic Hospital in Lagos in the presence of all parties and sent to South Africa for analysis.
He added that the samples were taken using saliva, not blood, and that both he and the child’s grandmother were designated to receive the results.
“So we were all in the same room, and he (the doctor) told us the procedure. It was not blood. I’ve read on social media that they were drawing blood. It’s not. It was not done by blood.
“It was from their saliva in their mouth. And he told us that these samples would be sent to South Africa for analysis. The grandmother of the baby and I signed that both of us would be the ones to receive the result.”
Adeleke said that after three DNA tests were conducted on Davido, two returned negative results, while the third was declared invalid due to sample contamination.
“When the result came, there was 0.00 possibility that Davido was the girl’s father. Another test, he said, also turned negative,” he said.
“The grandmother broke down and cried. I told her mistakes could happen and suggested we do two more DNA tests at other reputable centres.
“I offered to keep them in Lagos for a week at my expense so additional tests could be carried out”.
He added that to rule out any possibility of mistaken identity with Davido’s cousin, B-Red, two separate DNA tests were also conducted for him, both of which were negative.
Despite the results, Adeleke said he had supported the education of both the mother and the child at the family’s request.
He claimed that the mother later stopped schooling after two sessions, while the child completed her primary education.
The paternity dispute resurfaced on January 15, 2025, after an Instagram account allegedly linked to Labinjoh appealed to Davido, claiming the child had been bullied at school and calling for a DNA test.
Davido responded on X, wrote, “After five DNA tests… she dey crase… she and her mom better leave me the f**k alone and go find her papa.”
Labinjoh later shared screenshots of alleged private conversations between her daughter and the singer.
Adeleke also claimed that a sister of the girl informed him that the social media accounts accusing Davido of abandoning the child were created and managed by a media personality without the family’s consent.
