Former Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has alleged that some women use steroid injections to simulate pregnancy symptoms before acquiring babies through illicit means and presenting them to unsuspecting husbands as biological children.
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Okah-Donli made the claims during an interview on the Kaa Truths Podcast, a clip of which resurfaced on Tuesday, discussing what she described as fake pregnancy syndicates and baby trafficking networks in Nigeria.
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She alleged that women involved in the practice are administered steroids that produce physical effects resembling pregnancy, including facial swelling and abdominal distension. She claimed the women also feign morning sickness in the presence of their husbands, including pretending to vomit.
According to Okah-Donli, the women typically time the arrival of a baby for when their husbands are travelling, or send them on errands so the child can be presented upon their return. She further alleged that some undergo procedures designed to leave scarring consistent with a caesarean section, to reinforce the deception.
The former NAPTIP boss called for maternity testing to accompany paternity testing in disputed cases, arguing that investigators have historically focused only on confirming a child’s paternity while overlooking whether the presumed mother actually gave birth to the child. She said maternity tests could help expose trafficking cases in situations where a woman is wrongly suspected of infidelity when she is not, in fact, the biological mother.
She also alleged that women engaged in the practice frequently claim to have delivered twins, triplets, or quadruplets, as multiple-birth claims make it easier to acquire more than one trafficked infant at once while avoiding suspicion.
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