‘Salawa will forever be my wife; her husband is loaning her from me’ - Kollington (2025)

Fuji music legend, Kollington Ayinla, says songstress Salawa Abeni, known as the Queen of Waka Music, is still legally his wife.

Abeni married Lateef Adepoju, the founder of Leader Records, with whom she had two children. However, in 1986, she divorced Mr Adepoju, left his record label, and joined Kollington’s label. She released several albums under the label, including “Late Murtala Muhammed” (1976) and ‘‘Candle’’ (1990).

She later married Kollington, and their union lasted until 1994. They produced three children. In 1988 and 1989, Kollington and Salawa collaborated on the albums “I Love You” and “We Are The Children.”

Nonetheless, in 2023, Salawa unveiled Rasheed Adahunse, the comptroller and commandant of the Customs Training College, as her husband.

Kollington, on the other hand, is married to numerous women and famously maintained in a Nation Newspaper interview in January 2014 that his wives aren’t up to 15 as is widely believed.

The identities of his wives remain unknown publicly, but one of his wives, Olabode Sulu-Ilori, died in August 2019. She was 58.

Will of God

Speaking during an interview on the Teju Babyface podcast posted on YouTube on Thursday, Kollington, 75, maintained that Salawa isn’t his concubine or girlfriend.

Kollington, who’s no stranger to referring to Abeni as his wife, said: “That’s how God wants it and there’s nothing I can say other than that’s how God wants it to be, and what do you call a woman with whom one has three kids? That’s not a concubine or girlfriend, but a wife. She’s my wife till the end of my life. There’s nowhere I can put the three kids. If they follow me today, one will know I have children. But the matter of love between men and women is a great mystery. Otherwise, why would she leave me? But she’s a celebrity, so I understand.

“Just as women lust after male musicians, female celebrities are also greatly desired by other men. But a woman’s understanding is limited. She’s always at my beck and call, though. She’s still my wife. The man she’s with is loaning her; she still belongs to me. Of course, the man she’s with is just loaning her because she has no kids for him, whereas she has three adult kids with me. He’s just loaning her.”

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Since Kollington and Abeni’s separation, one of their most celebrated public appearances occurred in January 2020, when they both starred in a promotional video for Adron Homes and Properties.

Pictures from the event went viral.

The Kwara-born singer last made headlines when he said his colleague, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, known as K1 De Ultimate (Kwam 1), would never become the head of Fuji music as long as he was alive.