Paternity fraud in Nigeria is the pretence that a Nigerian father is the legitimate and biological father of a child. It usually occurs when a woman deliberately misidentifies a man as the biological and legitimate father of her child. This fraudulent act led the man to believe a biological connection with a child of another man and sometimes remain undetected for several years. In most cases, women are often aware that the presumed biological father is not genetically linked with the child. This false pretence is common among Nigerian women. Durex survey suggested that Nigerian women are the most unfaithful in the world and a DNA expert from Lagos University Teaching Hospital claimed that 30% of Nigerian men are not the biological father of all the children in their custody.
Causes
The major causes of paternity fraud in Nigeria had been attributed to "infidelity, adultery and increase in sexual recklessness among Nigerian couples" together with "poor family planning". Mix-ups in maternity hospitals are an additional factor in failed paternity tests: in these cases maternity test will fail too.