Paternity fraud: Shocking revelations as more couples embrace DNA testing

Recent studies have revealed that one in every four tested men turned out not to be the biological father of their child(ren) and ranks Nigeria as the second highest in paternity fraud. GODFREY GEORGE writes that increased DNA testing will open a can of worms in many homes

Mr Olanrewaju (surname withheld) rubbed both eyes with the back of his hands. He was not sure what he saw as the truth.

“How can four of the kids who call me father not be mine?” he wondered.

After secretly conducting a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to confirm his first son’s paternity at the DCC DNA Diagnostic Centre in Osogbo, Osun State, he received the shock of his life.

Sharing his story in tears on a radion station in Ibadan, Oyo State, the 44-year-old Osun State indigene said his wife, whom he married in 2007, brought another man’s children for him to father.

The children who are 16, 12, eight, and five years old were tested after Olanrewaju discovered what he termed ‘promiscuous moves’ from his wife.

After the first child’s DNA did not match his, he decided to carry out tests on all four, which returned negative.

Crying profusely, he said, “I want Nigerians to come to my rescue because I must not suffer this in vain. I married Toyin in 2007 and she gave birth to four children. But none of the children belong to me after subjecting them to DNA tests.”

However, reacting to the development, his wife disagreed with the results, saying that she was not there when the samples were taken, adding that she also did not know which samples were taken.

She stated, “I don’t accept the result. I don’t accept it because I was not there when they took samples, and I don’t know which samples they took, so I don’t accept it.

“I can’t accept it because I know how I conceived those children.”

After a few days, Toyin made a U-turn, revealing on air that the four kids indeed were not her husband’s, adding that they belonged to her pastor.

She also stated in Yoruba that her husband only fathered one, and that the other one belonged to a meat seller at the local market.

The shock on her husband’s face was met with hot tears that trickled down his cheeks and onto his chest.

The question on the lips of many is; what now will happen to the children? Although several sources close to the matter told our correspondent that the duo had since then lived apart, not much is said about the children’s welfare and whether or not their fathers had come to take responsibility, as all of them are minors under the law.

After his wife’s death in May, a Facebook user shared an anonymous post on NGL detailing how he found out that the two kids who called him father were not his.

He said he simply just decided to do the DNA test just for the sake of doing it only to be hit with the thunderbolt of the finding.

He wrote, “My wife passed away and left me with two children but I just found out through DNA that they are not my children. I am 36 years old. Please, advise me.”

In another string of posts on that anonymous thread, another Facebook user, who claimed to be living in the United Kingdom, said he only found out that his three kids were not his at the embassy when he wanted to move his family to the UK.

He wrote, “It was a rude shock to me when I found out that my three lovely kids were not mine. Three beautiful girls! I went mute for two weeks and almost died by suicide. But, after a long thought, I processed their visas regardless and moved them to the UK on a visit visa, which I renewed.

“As for their mother, we ended things the same day.”