Popular Nigerian doctor and health influencer, Dr. Chinonso Egemba, widely known as Aproko Doctor, has warned the public about a growing scam targeting desperate women seeking pregnancy solutions.
In a post shared on his official X handle on 15 September, Aproko Doctor wrote:
‘There’s a pregnancy SCAM going on: Anybody that tells you that another person cannot see the baby in your womb with an ultrasound scan is about to scam you. If there’s a pregnancy, it would be seen by ultrasound scans. A lot of women are being scammed this way. Then they pump them full of drugs to mimic pregnancy and tell them not to do scans. Then produce a baby and give it to the woman. It’s a criminal racket’.
The warning resurfaced amid controversy trailing a testimony shared by actress and former Big Brother Naija star, Bambam, who claimed in a 14 September post that a woman in her church carried a pregnancy for three years and four months before safely delivering. Bambam described the case as ‘God’s miracle’.
Following the viral testimony, medical practitioner Dr. Olusina Ajidahun (The Bearded Dr. Sina), co-founder of Priv Health and member of the World Health Organisation (WHO), also weighed in.
Rather than commenting on any specific case—all allegedly tied to Bambam’s post—he resurfaced his 4 January 2023, thread on fraudulent practices popularly referred to as ‘cryptic pregnancies’, reposting the thread recently to reinforce his earlier warnings.
In the reposted thread, he wrote, ‘Are we ready to talk about one of the biggest scams & frauds perpetrated by some hospitals in the name of cryptic pregnancy? A lot of women have given testimonies of miracle babies that they don’t know are stolen, and no one sees except their doctors’.
He further alleged that desperate women are exploited with hormone injections to mimic pregnancy, fake ultrasound scans, and then charged millions of naira.
‘These women are injected with female sex hormones that mimic pregnancy, leaving them bloated, vomiting, and with swollen legs. They are shown fake scans and told not to seek second opinions. On the supposed day of delivery, they are sedated, and babies they never carried are handed to them’, he said.
The BBC Africa Eye, in an investigation published between November 24 and 27, 2024, uncovered how fraudsters exploit desperate women through the so-called ‘cryptic pregnancy’ scam.
The report found that women were injected with hormones to mimic pregnancy symptoms, told not to go for scans, and later handed babies believed to have been trafficked.
‘It’s a fertility scam that’s ruthless. Women pay large sums for fake treatments… then they are tricked into believing they’re pregnant and sent home with a baby believed to have been trafficked’, the BBC reported.
The investigation also revealed facilities where even teenagers were held against their will, while victims told the BBC they were left ‘confused’ and heartbroken.
The resurfacing of Aproko Doctor’s warning, amplified by The_Bearded_Dr_Sina tied to Bambam’s viral church testimony, highlights the urgent need for vigilance against such dangerous scams.
With both Nigerian doctors and international investigations pointing to the same fraudulent practices, experts urge women to seek verified medical care and rely on evidence-based science rather than unverified miracle claims.
