“I wasn’t the one who left our marriage”, — Salawa Abeni responds to Kollington Ayinla

Waka music icon Salawa “Queen of Waka Music” Abeni has responded to Fuji legend Kollington Ayinla’s claim that she remains his legal wife, saying she was not the one who walked away from their marriage.

More than a year after Kollington made the assertion, Abeni addressed it for the first time during an interview on Oyinmomo TV.

In May 2025, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Kollington, speaking on the Teju Babyface Podcast, insisted that Abeni was neither his concubine nor his girlfriend but his lawful wife.

After divorcing the late Leader Records founder, Lateef Adepoju, in 1986, Abeni married Kollington. She had two children with Adepoju and three with Kollington before their marriage ended in 1994.

Following her split from Adepoju, she left his record label and joined Kollington’s, where they recorded the albums I Love You (1988) and We Are the Children (1989).

In 2023, Abeni introduced Rasheed Adahunse, Comptroller and Commandant of the Nigeria Customs Training College, as her husband.

Kollington, meanwhile, has several wives. In a 2014 interview with The Nation, he dismissed claims that he had as many as 15 wives, describing the figure as exaggerated.

Response

Speaking on Oyinmomo TV, the 65-year-old singer said she never left their marriage.

She said, “How the pain of ants is felt can only be told by those they bite. Who I am, only those who love me can explain. If they don’t like someone somewhere, they don’t take the needle. I won’t say more than that regarding my marriage to Kollington Ayinla. I read an interview online where he said, “I’m still his wife.”

“I indeed had children for him, but I wasn’t the one who left. It wasn’t a matter of showing off, or stubbornness, or something I did. My mother didn’t have two husbands; she had a rival. She had all her children for my father only. Destiny won’t go unfulfilled. May my God continue to protect me. That’s one of the songs in my discography, Iriri.”

Still connected

The veteran singer also said her experiences during the breakdown of their relationship inspired her 1991 album, Experience.

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Although she did not elaborate on the status of her relationship with Kollington, she said they remain connected because of their children.

“When that thing happened, I recorded an album titled Experience. In the album, I sang about how I got home and met my friends eating; they asked me to join them, but that wasn’t what my situation needed at the time.

“I got to a beer parlour, and my friends called me to join them for a drink, but that wasn’t what my situation needed. I got home and talked to my lover, and he asked that we be intimate, but that wasn’t my problem. My lover asked me what happened, and I said my life experiences were what were weighing on me. We’re still connected because of the children between us.”