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A DNA test revealed that Christopher Johnson wasn’t the biological father of the three children he had nurtured and invested in for almost two decades. The children, Esther, 19, Shirley, 17 and Stephen, 15, were born by the same mother who unfortunately was deceased.
Christopher, a successful but retired architect, was compelled to find out the truth about the paternity of the children after a stranger turned up one day to claim he was their biological father and challenged him to a DNA paternity test.
Christopher received the shock of his life when the result proved that the stranger was indeed the children’s real father. It turned out that the man and his late wife had been involved in a long secret love affair that produced the three children he erroneously assumed belonged to him.
DNA paternity tests are unraveling a lot of buried family secrets. Keeping family secrets isn’t as easy as it used to be and just one DNA test could change everything for better or for worse.
Many children are experiencing paternity scandals by learning that their father is really not their biological father.
The perception that paternity fraud is high in Nigeria is not unfounded. Reports have been making the rounds that Nigeria has the 2nd highest rate of paternity fraud in the world after Jamaica.
Many men have been unknowingly raising children that are not theirs and to curb the trend, there have been calls for introduction of mandatory DNA testing at birth.
The issue of paternity is a trilogy. It’s moral, scientific and legal issue,” a concerned commentator noted. “Series of DNA tests carried out in laboratories are showing that a number of children are being fathered by men who are not their biological fathers.”
Saturday Vanguard investigation revealed that traditionally in Nigeria, paternity of a child is commonly determined by acknowledgment, presumption or by proof.
Probably the most common mode of paternity is by acknowledgment. Once a man admits he is the father of a child, the case is closed.
A man is presumed to be the father of a child once the child is born within wedlock.
It is often said that a woman is in best position to identify the father of her child, so once a woman fingers a particular man, case closed. However, developments show that proving paternity is often not as straightforward.
But rampant cases of denials, disputes and counterclaims of paternity have been making the rounds.
When the DNA test of their children failed to match with that of the men believed to be their fathers, several women were accused of unfaithfulness and condemned into the abyss of marital ignominy, but the resulting scandal snowballed into one of the most shocking revelations in the history of parental disputes.
But for the confession of a dying Zambian nurse, Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa, who owned up to swapping about 5,000 babies over 12 years “for the fun of it”, these women might never have restored their ruined homes or removed the garb of unfaithfulness and adultery as the truth behind the genetic discrepancies of their children’s paternity might never have been unravelled.
Staggering statistics
Meanwhile in Nigeria, according to available data, at least four out of 10 men are not the biological fathers of their children. Lagos-based DNA experts confirm that many men do not know that they are not the biological fathers of their child.
One expert noted that currently, the situation in Nigeria is quite high and majority of first-borns are affected.
One expert noted that currently, the situation in Nigeria is quite high and majority of first-borns are affected.
According to the American Association of Blood Banks, globally, a third of all men are not the actual fathers of their presumed children.
My life has crumbled. Living means nothing to me now than a pack of trash. It would have been better for me not to be born than to face such miserable and uncanny situation.”
These were the shattering words of Mr Shogunle, who recently discovered that the four boys whom he witnessed their birth and catered for as a loving father would, were after all, not his biological children.
The startling discovery has not only betrayed the trust and confidence he had in his wife of 12 years, Betty, it has also stolen the happy atmosphere in the family.
The genesis of this startling revelation began in October 2017, after a heated argument between the couple over Betty’s refusal to perform her conjugal responsibility. Her husband, a banker, had to involve their pastor, having endured sex starvation for seven months.
His decision to bring the matter to their pastor’s knowledge was mainly borne out of news making the round that his wife was having a clandestine relationship with their former driver , a Master Degree holder , identified simply as James, who later got a job with one of the leading Oil & Gas firms in the country. This was after much confrontation and persuasion for his wife to tell him the truth.
According to Shogunle, “ Each time I confronted her, she would rebuff me. At a point she told me to do my worst. And as punishment , she deprived me of sex for six months”.
But the truth came to limelight on November 30,2018.
Explaining how he received the news that plunged him into a world of confusion, psychological and emotional trauma , Shogunle said,
“ I had come home early because I was not feeling too well. I also did not drive because I was too weak to do so. I did not know they were signals to danger ahead.
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