In a shocking revelation that has got tongues wagging across the nation, Abiodun Salami, a senior geneticist with DNA Centre for Paternity Test, Allen Avenue in Ikeja, Lagos, has disclosed that in DNA paternity testing, most times, in Nigeria, six out of every 10 children might not be fathered by their supposed father.
In an interview with Premium Times, Salami averred that if everyone starts doing DNA tests, the whole country will scatter, adding that there will be no marriages again.
“The statistics are mind-blowing. You discover that almost 60 percent of the tests that people come to do are negative. In fact, 6 out of every 10 paternity tests turn out negative. Statistically, in DNA paternity testing, most times, in Nigeria, we see that six out of every 10 children might not be fathered by their biological father”.
He, however, said it is a biased statistic. “Because for someone to walk in here, he already suspects that there is an issue. There is really a doubt already and most people won’t believe that statistics until it happens to them. I always advise men, it is good to trust, but verify. Things are happening”.
Delineating on his assertion, the geneticist said “Most female undergraduates now have one man or the other sponsoring their education aside from their father. These are the men that will eventually be the chairmen at their wedding. These are the men they are actually sleeping with. From experience in DNA testings, most firstborns are not fathered by the husbands at home, because these people have a prior relationship before getting married. Most times, they continue with that relationship, they don’t leave it after marriage”.
When asked if a mistake can occur during DNA testing, he said “It is possible to make human error, especially when there is a mix-up with the sample. That is a human error but it is very rare. But there are also cases where we have Chimera’s syndrome, but it is also rare. This is when a woman’s DNA does not match that of her child. It is very rare, probably one in a million cases”.
On if couples walk into the hospital for the test or they meet them at their preferred location, Salami explained that “Most times, it is the fathers that come without informing their wives”. He also said that women go too.
“But this time, they come with the father’s sample. Most times, they come with the man’s toothbrush to know if the child is their husband’s. They don’t tell the man – we extract the DNA of the man and compare it with the child and they take the result.
Sometimes, the finding could be that their husband owns the child, and sometimes, it could go the other way”.
The geneticist said the DNA test costs about N60,000 per person, which is about N120, 000 for father and child. “We use different samples like the mouth swab, hair, blood, wax, sweat, chewing gum, and toothbrush. But the best is the mouth swab where you just use cotton wool, it is those lose cells from the mouth that we extract the DNA from the nucleus of those cells. Once the DNAs are extracted we then compare the genes. As a human being, I inherit half of the genes from my father and another half from my mother. So, what we do is to compare half of my father’s DNA with half of mine and there must be a complete match. If there is a complete match, then the probability of paternity is about 99.99%. If there is a mismatch in one or two or three places, it will automatically come down to zero. That means we are not related and the results are ready within a week or at least seven working days,” he said.
