'Women now use steroids to fake pregnancies to deceive their husbands — Ex-NAPTIP DG reveals, advocates for maternity tests

• Former NAPTIP DG Julie Okah-Donli alleged that some women use steroids to fake pregnancies before obtaining babies illegally. 

• She said the alleged scheme involves mimicking pregnancy symptoms and presenting trafficked babies as biological children. 

• Okah-Donli linked the practice to baby trafficking networks and called for stronger efforts to dismantle them. 

• She also advocated maternity tests in suspicious cases but did not provide data on how widespread the alleged steroid use is. 

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 before obtaining babies through illegal means to deceive their husbands into believing they gave birth.

Okah-Donli made the claims during a resurfaced interview on the Kaa Truths Podcast, where she spoke about alleged fake pregnancy syndicates and baby trafficking networks operating in Nigeria. The interview has since generated widespread attention on social media and in the Nigerian media. 

According to the former NAPTIP director, the alleged scheme begins with women taking steroids that cause physical changes associated with pregnancy.

She claimed the drugs can make the face appear swollen, enlarge the abdomen and create other bodily changes that make the women look pregnant.

"They use steroids that make them look pregnant. Their stomachs become big, their faces become puffy and they even begin to exhibit symptoms associated with pregnancy," she said. 

Okah-Donli further alleged that some women imitate pregnancy-related symptoms such as morning sickness, vomiting and excessive salivation to convince their husbands and relatives that they are expecting a baby. 

She claimed that when the expected delivery date approaches, some women arrange for their husbands to be away before obtaining babies from illegal sources and presenting them as their biological children.

According to her, some women allegedly go as far as undergoing procedures to create scars resembling those from caesarean section deliveries to support the deception. 

The former NAPTIP DG linked the practice to baby trafficking syndicates, saying the demand for babies fuels illegal networks that exploit vulnerable women and children.

She also alleged that some women claim to have given birth to twins, triplets or quadruplets because multiple births can make the deception easier to sustain. 

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Okah-Donli called for greater public awareness of fake pregnancy schemes and urged authorities to strengthen efforts to dismantle baby trafficking networks across the country.

She also advocated the use of maternity tests, in addition to paternity tests where necessary, to establish whether a woman actually gave birth to a child in suspicious cases. 

Although fake pregnancy and baby trafficking cases have been investigated by NAPTIP over the years, Okah-Donli did not provide statistics or specific evidence during the interview to show how widespread the alleged use of steroids is. Her comments reflect her account of methods she said were used by some criminal syndicates.