Former Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has alleged that some women use steroids to fake pregnancies and subsequently obtain babies to deceive their husbands into believing they gave birth. The lawyer made these claims during an interview on the Kaa Truths Podcast, a clip of which resurfaced on Tuesday, July 14, where she discussed alleged fake pregnancy syndicates and baby trafficking in Nigeria.
Steroids Used to Mimic Pregnancy Symptoms
According to Okah-Donli, women involved in this practice are allegedly injected with steroids that cause physical changes similar to those experienced during pregnancy. "They are injected with steroids. So when they inject them with these steroids, it gives them the semblance of a pregnant woman. Their faces are bloated up, and their tummies are actually very big. They look pregnant, but they are not pregnant," she said.
She further alleged that these women mimic pregnancy symptoms, especially when their husbands are around. "When their husbands are around, they pretend to be suffering from morning sickness. They spit, they pretend to throw up and all sorts of funny things," she claimed.
Babies Presented After Husbands Are Away
Okah-Donli also alleged that the babies are often presented to the husbands after arrangements have been made to keep them away during the supposed delivery. "When it's time to have the baby, they usually have the baby when the man has travelled. Then he comes back to see a baby in the house. But sometimes if it's the kind of man that doesn't travel, they ask him to go and buy something… By the time the man comes back, it's 'Congratulations, you have a baby,'" she alleged.
The former NAPTIP boss claimed that some women even undergo procedures designed to resemble a caesarean section to strengthen the deception. "They actually do open them up to make it look like they had a CS. That's how desperate these guys are. They stitch them back up," she alleged.
Maternity Tests Urged to Uncover Baby Trafficking
Speaking on paternity disputes, Okah-Donli argued that maternity tests should also be conducted whenever paternity tests reveal that a child is not biologically related to the presumed father. "We started finding out that during a paternity test, a lot of children were not the children of the man. But one thing they failed to do was maternity test, which would have confirmed that the women did not have the children," she said.
She maintained that maternity tests could help investigators uncover cases of alleged baby trafficking. "The man is thinking this woman cheated on me, whereas the woman bought the baby. So it's not even the mother. You can have the maternity test to be sure that this woman is not the mother of the baby, and then you begin to investigate where the baby came from," she said.
Claims of Multiple Births Raise Suspicion
Okah-Donli further alleged that some women falsely claim to have given birth to multiple babies because it makes the deception easier. "Most of them say they have twins. They have triplets. They have quadruplets. Now everybody seems to be having twins and triplets and quadruplets because it's easier for them to just buy them once and for all and deceive themselves and the world," she added.
