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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

Women Fake Pregnancies With Steroids to Deceive Husbands, Ex-NAPTIP DG Claims

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • A former NAPTIP Director-General alleged women use steroids to fake pregnancies and obtain babies to deceive husbands.
  • These women reportedly mimic pregnancy symptoms and arrange for a baby to be presented upon the husband's return.
  • The practice is linked to cases where paternity tests reveal a lack of biological relation, with maternity tests suggested to uncover such deceptions.

Some women are allegedly faking pregnancies with steroids to deceive their husbands into believing they have given birth, according to Julie Okah-Donli, former Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

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

— Julie Okah-DonliDescribing the alleged use of steroids to fake pregnancy.

In a resurfaced interview, Okah-Donli detailed how women involved in this practice are injected with steroids, causing facial bloating and enlarged abdomens to simulate pregnancy. She claims they also mimic symptoms like morning sickness, vomiting, and spitting, particularly when their husbands are present.

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

— Julie Okah-DonliExplaining how women allegedly mimic pregnancy symptoms.

Okah-Donli further alleged that these women often arrange for the "birth" to occur when the husband is away, presenting him with a baby upon his return. In some instances, they might send the husband on an errand before he comes back to a supposed newborn. Some women reportedly undergo fake surgical procedures to create the appearance of a Cesarean section.

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.’

— Julie Okah-DonliDetailing the alleged process of presenting a baby to the husband.

The former NAPTIP boss connected this alleged practice to a rise in paternity test results showing children are not biologically related to their fathers. She advocated for maternity tests to be conducted in such cases, arguing that they would reveal whether the woman actually gave birth, thereby helping to uncover potential baby trafficking schemes.

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

— Julie Okah-DonliAlleging fake surgical procedures for C-sections.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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