Davido, who had filed the motion through his lawyers since April 17, requesting joint custody or unfettered access to Imade, wishes to pursue the case no further.

This was after Sophia reference his late son, Ifeanyi, to buttress her case that safety, especially for children, under the roof of Davido is highly questionable.

“The Applicant is married to another woman, and they live together. The proper upbringing of our daughter by another cannot be guaranteed. The fact that the Applicant lost his son in his house in rather unfortunate and questionable circumstances shows that our daughter cannot be placed in the custody of the Applicant,” the suit noted.

In response, Davido remarked that it is unfair for Sophia to keep reminding him of the death of his son, and even suggest he is to be blamed for the tragedy.

Your constantly bringing up the death of my child at any point u can to just remind us of this tragedy that haunts us everyday of our lives .. Imade will grow up to see I fought for her .. as for now u can have her .. P.S she won’t be a child forever .. enjoy Imade Aurora…

— Davido (@davido) July 5, 2024

He went on a ranting spree on his socials, questioning why it is a crime for him to request joint custody of a child who bears his name and blood.

“All I asked for was ‘joint custody’ but cus it’s davido yall wanna act like yall can’t read! SMH I’m off this … yall be blessed and I pray this never happens to you”.

Davido asked Sophia to keep their child if that brings her the satisfaction she needs.

This move comes in response to Davido’s initial 44-paragraph originating motion, which demanded unfettered access to his first child following a series of disputes regarding alleged restricted access.

Though Davido claimed to be responsible for their child even after the breakup, Sophia has constantly maintained that he is an absent father.

She remarked that since she disallowed him access to her body, he has taken revenge by punishing their daughter from fatherly responsibilities.

Her counter-affidavit read in parts;

“That throughout the course of our relationship the Applicant has never shown true commitment or love for our daughter as he always used the condition of my making myself available for his sexual pleasures as a pre-condition to visit our daughter or show some fatherly love to her.

That the Applicant apart from his cravings for a sex slave only comes around to spend time with our daughter when he wants to use our daughter for his media stunts or promotions.

That the Applicant has always been known to go away and stop communicating with our daughter, to stop making payment of school fees and/or payment of maintenance for our daughter whenever I refuse his sexual advances”.

In the countersuit, she attached a conversation they had in 2020, where Davido requested for phone sex, as proof of her claims.

However, contrary to claims he “begged” for the intimacy, the conversation seemed casual and highly consensual.

Among her argument demanding full custody is that Davido, given his busy nature, cannot care for Imade to the fullest.

Sophia reference how his son, who was staying with him and multiple members of the crew drowned and died, making her case questioning the safety of her child should she allow joint custody.

November 21 was Davido’s 30th birthday, and social media was awash with multiple posts in honour of the superstar, of which included a post from his first child, Imade.

She wished her father well, accompanying the epistle with a family image of Davido and his three children.

However, tweeps have described the post as insensitive, especially as it contained images of Ifeanyi, Davido’s yet-to-be-buried son who died from accidental drowning some weeks ago.

Netizens argued that it was a deliberate attempt by his baby mama Sophia, who manages their daughter’s page, to taunt the grieving lovers.

Insults were thrown from all corners of social media at the first baby mama for what they said is an insensitive post, as they dragged her for being jealous that Davido had tied the knot with Chioma.

As the incident is almost dying off, Sophia has issued a statement, apologising for the post.

She acknowledged the post was indeed insensitive on second thought, as she indicated her intention was not to remind Davido and Chioma of their pain.

“Imade deeply loves her father and all her siblings, and as a mother, I’m doing my best to guide her through the difficult emotion of grief from the loss of her brother whilst trying to celebrate her father’s birthday. I ask for your consideration and hope that you all can be understanding during these times,” she ended the statement.

Rumours were rife that she is carrying Davido’s child and is expected to become a mother-of-two but she claims the contrary.

In a recent post she made on social media, Sophia indicated that she is not pregnant and if she was, everyone would see it because her life is not hidden from the public.

She revealed she is upset by the rumours and her change of look is a mere weight gain and not as a result of pregnancy.

“Who started the rumours? I need to know the person. I am not pregnant. Can I say something? Can’t I put on weight? So I can’t say I wouldn’t work out for days and get some belly pouch?”

According to her, her goal is to train their daughter, Imade first and she is not ready for another.

“If I am pregnant I am going to pull a Rihanna on you. You all know my life is public there is nothing to hide. If I am pregnant we will practically raise it together. If I was pregnant you will see it cause I am not scared of nobody my first pregnancy was private, and I promise you my next pregnancy would be public, cause I have done the privacy, I want to do the public and I am not scared of you guys, so I need you guys to stop with the pregnancy rumours.”

Amanda, who is the US-based mother of Hailey, Davido’s second child, is seen with the singer having a good time in Ghana with Imade‘s mother, Sophia.

In a video taken and shared by Sophia on Snapchat, Davido poured the three of them a glass of drink as they all cheered in celebration.

Amanda and Sophia were heard conversing, with Sophia promising to spoil the former until she gets drunk.

Their vacation in Ghana is gradually becoming a norm; last year, Davido invited one of his baby mamas to spend quality time during a tour.

He had also previously been spotted chilling with his third baby mama, Chioma, in Ghana.

Video below:

Former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has praised the Supreme Court for its decision to allow courts sit and deal with issues affecting personal liberty on weekends and holidays.

Mr Anyidoho also reserved a special praise for outgoing Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, who presided over the seven-member panel to give the ruling, saying she has left behind a good legacy.

 “Sophia Akuffo has really done well; that landmark ruling she presided over means she has left a very good legacy. On behalf of the Atta mills institute, I really want to thank her. She deserves praises,” he said on Accra based Okay FM monitored by Adomonline.com.

“Sophia Akuffo has done enough to advance the administration of justice,” he noted further.

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Mr Anyidoho who is the Executive Director of the Atta Mills Institute, said he would make it his mission to personally go and thank Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo for eulogizing late President Evans Atta Mills.

In eulogizing late President Evans Atta Mills, Chief Justice Akuffo said even though she was challenged in the area of arithmetic, Prof. Atta Mills as her lecturer in the law school had patience to help her to eventually pass her exams.

Sophia Akuffo’s tenure as Chief Justice ended on Friday, December 20, 2019, after a two-year term in office.

Her tenure, which was fraught with many controversies has been described by some critics as conservative, particularly with her stance on legal education.

Member of Parliament for Domeabra-Obom Constituency in the Greater Accra region is questioning the progress of the one million dollars per constituency President Nana Akufo-Addo promised Ghanaians.

“President Akufo-Addo and his people are always criticising Mahama for doing nothing for Ghanaians. Where is the one million dollars per constituency after promising us? The NPP and Akufo-Addo have simply failed us and its time that we preach the truth to Ghanaians. We are living under deceit,” she said.

Sophia Karen Edem Ackuaku was speaking on Adom FM’s morning show ‘Dwaso Nsem‘, Thursday.

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President Akufo-Addo said Ghanaians will not entrust power into the hands of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2020 led by former President John Dramani Mahama, because it still has not woken up from its dreams.

The President said this on Tuesday, August 13, when he addressed staff and students of the Bolgatanga Senior High School, Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region, as part of his two-day working visit to the region.

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He said, “I know that there are people in this country who don’t want this policy [free Senior High School Policy], who have been campaigning against this policy. They are dreaming that they are going to come back to power to cancel the policy. They did not know that the Ghanaian people were no longer interested in entrusting them with power. They still haven’t woken up from their dreams.”

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But, the MP, chiding the Akufo-Addo-led government for its continual deceit, posited that the Akufo-Addo-led government is always making unrealistic promises.

“Don’t you dream? After dreaming about the one million dollars per constituency, what has the NPP done about it? Total failure and then you turn around and call Mahama names and accuse him of dreaming. Akufo-Addo is rather the one dreaming. He should continue and by the time he is done, the NDC would have been in power,” she noted.

Source: Adomonline.com | Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy

Ace Kojo Annan Ankomah believes the factors that go into the appointment of the head of the third arm of government and the approval process need tweaking if the country wants to be the ultimate beneficiary.

The outspoken lawyer told Samson Lardy Anyenini on the Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday, not all the questions posed to CJ nominee, Sophia Akufo Friday, was important.

“I had expected some debate on her stern judicial opinion, structures between structural and procedural law,” the legal practitioner registered his disappointment.

Parliament’s Appointments Committee vetted Justice Sophia Akuffo for six long hours as the country’s next Chief Justice. She will replace Justice Georgina Theodora Wood who retired from the office this month if successfully approved by Parliament’s plenary.

The Supreme Court judge was quizzed on a broad range of issues bordering on legal education, some rulings given by the Supreme Court and the independence of the judiciary.

The Harvard-trained lawyer mounted a strong defense against suggestions that the Ghana School of Law has become moribund that need to be scrapped.

“What happens in the universities at the faculties of law is that they educate people academically on the law [but] the Ghana School of Law is a professional training facility and that is where the theories learnt in classrooms are supposed to be taught from a more practical point of view,” Justice Akuffo said.

She also advanced an uncompromising position on the issue of mob justice that is on the increase in the country. She was forthright a quality justice system will inject some modicum of confidence in the people to desist from taking the law into their own hands.

Justice Akuffo also described as “distasteful” the practice of legal practitioners advertising their works on social media.

Some legal practitioners have been displeased with the line and quality of questions posed to the incoming Chief Justice by some lawmakers who were part of the 30-member strong Committee.

While some were impressed with some of her answers, she has equally been criticised for refusing to answers questions, some of which were before the Supreme Court.

But Mr Ankomah believes that time has come for the appointment and approval processes of a Chief Justice to be reviewed.

On his part, Vice President of IMANI-Ghana, Kofi Bentil said the vetting process is the right place for issues to be explored thoroughly by both the lawmakers and CJ nominee.

“That forum where you talk or ask questions of the CJ should be a place where you interrogate their philosophy and their jurisprudential slant,” he said.

Mr Bentil said in the United States, every judge at supreme court is known for his “jurisprudential slant” that decides the direction certain issues will take especially abortion right.

He, however, said he would have been happy to pick the thought of Justice Akuffo on the structures between “structural and procedural law.”

“It’s a big issue for me and a big debate in law school…” he said.

Chairman of the Appointments Committee Joe Osei Owusu says each of the 26 members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament have a dedicated 20 minutes to ask any question of the Chief Justice nominee.
“The Chief Justice [Georgina Theodora Wood] has retired already… a vacuum, so to speak, has been created because the next available senior [Justice William Atuguba] is also due to retire in a few days from now. We considered all the circumstances and as a committee, we reviewed the fact that to date, no petition has been brought against the CJ nominee. It may be helpful to abridge the time and do it as quickly as possible.

“That will enable us to take the whole day [on Friday] and use the weekend to prepare a report and probably by Monday we’ll be ready for the report to be considered by the plenary,” Joe Osei Owusu said.

He added that, “This week, she [Sophia Akuffo] may not be able to start work, but beginning next week, she may be able to start work in full and administration of justice can then continue without any vacuum.”

MP for Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency Dr Appiah Kubi is hoping the vetting will only last for two hours.

He is praying the MPs will ask relevant questions but cautioned the nominee to also be precise in her answers to avoid needless banter during the vetting.

President Akufo-Addo last month announced Justice Sophia Akuffo as his choice of successor of Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood who retired on June 8, 2017.

At a short ceremony Friday, he lauded her over two decades’ legal career with the Supreme Court which he described as “extraordinary”

She takes over from current Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood who is leaving office in June, after 10 years’ service as the head of the third arm of government, the Judiciary.

“Her career has been extraordinary, and I pay warm tribute to her distinguished service to our nation, and wish her a well-earned retirement, even though her public service will not be over as her place on the Council of State awaits her,” he said in appreciation of her service to the state.

President Akufo-Addo said he has no doubt that Justice Akuffo will be a worthy successor to Chief Justice Wood and uphold jealously, the independence of the Judiciary.

He said Justice Akuffo whom he has known for well over 40 years has impressed him “considerably with her hard work, capacity for detailed research, independence of mind and spirit, honesty and integrity, deep-seated respect for the rule of law, and her abiding belief in the sovereignty of Almighty God.”

“I expect discipline, fairness, integrity and the continuing modernisation of judicial activities to be the hallmarks of her tenure as Chief Justice if she is so endorsed by the constitutional bodies.”

Read the full speech below:

In three and a half week’s time, on 8^th June this year to be precise, a remarkable chapter in Ghana’s legal and judicial history will come to a close. On that day, Her Lordship the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, will step down from an office into retirement. The twelfth occupant of that office in independent Ghana, she is the first female to head the Judiciary, and its longest-serving leader, who will have been in office for three days short of ten years. Her career has been extraordinary, and I pay warm tribute to her distinguished service to our nation, and wish her a well-earned retirement, even though her public service will not be over as her place on the Council of State awaits her.

In order to ensure a smooth succession to the office and preserve the integrity of the judicial branch of government, I have decided to initiate the constitutional processes for the appointment of her successor, so as to preclude any undue vacuum in the office. I have, thus, today, sought, by letter, consultation with the Council of State, in accordance with Article 144 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic, in order to nominate for the approval of Parliament the appointment of Justice Sophia Akuffo, a Justice of the Supreme Court and a senior member of the Court, as the new Chief Justice of the Republic. If the constitutional processes conclude in a satisfactory manner, and I have every expectation that they will, she will be the thirteenth person to hold that important office of State.

I have known Justice Sophia Akuffo well, for over 40 years. Indeed, she was my first junior in practice, as barristers call their work. She impressed me considerably with her hard work, her capacity for detailed research, her independence of mind and spirit, her honesty and integrity, her deep-seated respect for the rule of law, and her abiding belief in the sovereignty of Almighty God. I believe these are the qualities which sustained her brilliant career as a lawyer that propelled her to the notice of the 1^st President of the 4^th Republic, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, who appointed her to the Supreme Court on November 30, 1995, some 22 years ago.

She has been one of the leading lights of the Court since her appointment, and her contribution to the Court’s work and the growth of our nation’s jurisprudence has been extensive. She has enriched her judicial experience by serving with credit on continental judicial bodies such as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, where she ended up as President of the Court.

I have no doubt that Justice Akuffo will be a worthy successor to Chief Justice Wood and uphold jealously the independence of the Judiciary. I expect discipline, fairness, integrity and the continuing modernisation of judicial activities to be the hallmarks of her tenure as Chief Justice if she is so endorsed by the constitutional bodies. It is important for the development of our nation that we have a Judiciary that commands the respect of the nation by the quality of its justice delivery, as well as by the comportment of its judges.

We are all witnesses to the stormy winds that have buffeted the Judiciary in recent years and to the efforts Chief Justice Wood has been making to restore public confidence in the institution. I expect Justice Akuffo to continue and intensify that work.  The Judiciary has the onerous responsibility of being the bulwark of the defence of the liberties and the rights of our people. It can only discharge that responsibility effectively if it has the unalloyed respect of the people.

We are determined to build a new Ghanaian civilisation, where the rule of law is not a slogan, but an operating principle for the development of our State, where the separation of powers is real and meaningful, where the liberties and rights of our people are fully protected, and where law and order provide a firm basis for our social and economic development, so that the dreams of prosperity that animated the great patriots, who are the founders of our nation, can find expression in our generation.

I will be a genuine and trusted partner of the Judiciary so that, together, the Executive and Judiciary can co-operate in a spirit of mutual respect to attain this goal for the benefit and welfare of our people. I am confident that, in Justice Sophia Akuffo, I will find a worthy collaborator in this noble endeavour. I commend her to the constitutional bodies, the Council of State and Parliament, for appointment as Chief Justice of Ghana.

Thank you. May God bless our homeland Ghana and make her great and strong.