A war of words has erupted between Davido’s camp and the Edo State government after a top aide to Governor Monday Okpebholo declared the Afrobeats superstar unwelcome in the state, only for the singer’s longtime logistics manager, Isreal DMW, to dismiss the ban as baseless and question the aide’s authority to issue it.
The controversy traces back to the run-up to Osun State’s August 15 governorship election, when Okpebholo travelled there to campaign for the ruling party’s candidate and took aim at Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke, who happens to be Davido’s uncle.
Okpebholo reportedly asked voters whether they were tired of an incumbent he described as unserious and focused only on dancing. Davido, unwilling to let the jab slide, responded by sharing what appeared to be a poor WAEC result attributed to the governor.
In a subsequent interview, the singer said he would not be apologizing, adding that he felt sorry for the governor’s own children over how their father had conducted himself publicly.
The feud escalated sharply on Thursday when Apostle Kassy Chukwu, the Senior Special Assistant on Digital Media to Governor Okpebholo, appeared in a video posted by Peniel TV International in Benin City declaring that Davido would no longer be permitted to perform in Edo State for the remainder of the current administration.
“You have been banned from coming to Edo State to perform. We don’t want to see you in Edo again,” Chukwu said in the clip. He went further, questioning the authenticity of the document Davido had shared, dismissing it as AI-generated, and cautioning the singer against further posts about the governor or his family.
Chukwu also singled out Isreal DMW, accusing him of egging Davido on, and claimed Edo youths were angered by the singer’s conduct.
Some accounts of the video circulating online attributed even sharper language to the governor’s aide, with one report quoting him threatening that anyone who caught Davido in the state would have boys remove his teeth with slaps.
The remarks did not sit well with Isreal DMW, who wasted no time hitting back on Instagram. Rather than address the substance of the ban, the Edo-born aide turned his fire on Chukwu’s credentials, questioning whether the governor’s aide even hailed from Edo State and arguing he had no standing to issue any such ban.
Isreal Dabistant, as he’s popularly known online, painted Chukwu as an outsider capitalising on his role for clout, branding him a “settler” from Ebonyi State who had become a nuisance in Benin City, and dismissing his authority to speak for indigenes of the state pointedly noting that Davido’s own mother is from Edo, making the singer’s ties to the state a maternal birthright rather than a privilege that can be revoked by government fiat.
As of Friday, the standoff showed no signs of cooling. The video of Chukwu’s remarks has continued to circulate widely online, drawing fresh attention to the dispute, with neither camp showing any indication of backing down.
Edo State’s government has yet to issue any formal, official communication confirming the ban carries the weight of state policy, and it remains unclear whether Chukwu’s declaration reflects an official government position.
For now, the clash sits at the intersection of celebrity culture and political grievance, a reminder of how quickly an online spat between an artiste and a state house can spiral into a full-blown public confrontation, playing out one viral video and one fiery Instagram post at a time.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
What began as an online spat between Davido and Edo Governor Okpebholo over the Osun election has spiraled into a public “ban” on the singer performing in Edo, declared by the governor’s aide Kassy Chukwu, but Davido’s camp, through Isreal DMW, insists no one can bar him from his own maternal home state, and it’s still unclear whether the “ban” is even an official government position or just one aide’s personal outburst.
