Nigerian health expert Dr. Chinonso Egemba, popularly known as Aproko Doctor, has raised awareness about a growing scam called “cryptic pregnancy,” which is targeting women in the country.
According to him, fake doctors and fraudsters trick women by giving them hormone injections that make them feel and look pregnant. Later, these victims are handed babies believed to have been stolen or trafficked.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Aproko Doctor wrote: “There’s a pregnancy scam going on. If anyone tells you that a baby cannot be seen on an ultrasound scan, they are trying to deceive you.”
He explained that if there is truly a pregnancy, ultrasound scans will always detect it. Fraudsters instead use drugs to create pregnancy-like symptoms and then instruct women not to go for proper scans. At the end, they hand over a baby to the unsuspecting woman. He described the act as a “criminal racket.”
This warning gained more attention after Bambam, a former Big Brother Naija star, shared a testimony about a woman in her church who supposedly carried a pregnancy for three years and four months, calling it a “miracle.”
The claim stirred debate online, pushing another Nigerian doctor, Dr. Olusina Ajidahun, also known as The Bearded Dr. Sina, to issue fresh warnings about the scam.
Dr. Sina explained that such women are often injected with hormones that make them gain weight, vomit, and experience other pregnancy-like symptoms. They are usually told to only do scans in one hospital and avoid others. On the day of “delivery,” they are drugged and handed a stolen baby.
He added that this scam is run by baby factory cartels, who take advantage of desperate women, especially older or childless women longing for children. These victims are convinced it is a mysterious “cryptic pregnancy.”
A BBC Africa Eye investigation has also exposed this fraudulent practice. The report showed how women, including teenagers, were held against their will in some facilities, injected with hormones, and made to believe they were pregnant. Babies handed over in the end are suspected to be trafficked children.
Experts warn that this cruel scam takes advantage of vulnerable women, charging them huge sums of money for fake treatments and leaving them heartbroken when the truth comes out.
