House Summons Ehanire, Tallen over Rising Cases of Pregnancy Scams

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committees on Healthcare Services, and Women Affairs to invite the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, and his counterpart in Women Affairs Ministry, Pauline Tallen, in a bid to investigate the trend of cryptic pregnancies scam in Nigeria.

The House also urged the federal government to adopt monitoring and evaluation mechanisms on the consequences of scam pregnancies, which could lead to health challenges and eventual loss of life.

It also urged the two ministers to give directives to the relevant authorities to commence public enlightenment campaign at the grassroots to achieve the desired results.

The resolutions of the lawmakers were sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Ikenna Elezieanya at the plenary yesterday.

Moving the motion, Elezieanya noted that cryptic pregnancy is a slow-growing pregnancy caused by insufficient hormones, and as such, it takes a longer time for the fetus to mature after a long while.

He said, however, there is a trend that has pervaded the Nigerian space where women are falsely pronounced pregnant by persons who impersonate themselves as doctors and nurses refer to this fraud as cryptic pregnancy.

The lawmaker said the House is aware that in Nigeria, many families are lured and fall victims to this fraudulent activity in the quest to have children; women are injected with hormones of pregnancy, and while these women parade themselves as being pregnant, no pregnancy is detected in the ultrasound.

He expressed concerns that these scammers inject women with hormones to boost pregnancy which has adverse effects on the adrenal gland and eventually leads to kidney failure.

Elezieanya said: “Also worried that women are sometimes sedated and operated on or given an episiotomy, and thereafter, the scammers bring arranged babies, several desperate women who have gone through this process ended up in perpetual sorrow due to the adverse effects of the drugs which damage the female reproductive organs thus, killing some women that have underlying ailments in the process.

“Convinced that since the core mandate of the government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens, the government should carry out public enlightenment campaign from the grassroots on the danger and consequences of cryptic pregnancies.”