The mother of five had ‘ingeniously’ played two men into a dubious romance and deceived both to believe that they fathered her ‘only daughter’, Damola.

The story has been told of Fatimoh Oloyede, a Nigerian woman, who deceived two men into thinking they fathered her child.

If Fatimoh were a footballer, she would most likely make exploits as a dribbler.

The mother of five had ‘ingeniously’ played two men into a dubious romance and deceived both to believe that they fathered her ‘only daughter’, Damola.

She had sustained the game of deceit for about 11 years until a few weeks ago when her castle of lies collapsed like a pack of cards as the two men found out that she had been deceiving them to believe they are the girl’s father.

The 38-year-old woman impregnated by a man in Ibadan had left the Southwest city for Lagos and lived with a man named Oluwasegun Benson for three months, telling him that she was pregnant with his child.

Thereafter, she told Benson that she was going to visit her mother in Ibadan but instead went to the house of her other Lagos-based lover, Sharafa Biliaminu, where she stayed for another two months and also told him that she was pregnant for him. She then returned to Ibadan where she was eventually delivered of a baby girl that has since become the subject of a serious paternity row.

Fatimah was however interdicted by the operatives of the Frederick Fasehun-led faction of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Ifako-Ijaiye Chapter, when a member of the group, Sharafa, who is one of the two men laying claim to Damola’s paternity, discovered that Fatimoh had introduced the girl to another man as her father and had taken her to live in the man’s house.

Narrating his experience with Fatimoh in a chat with our reporter, Biliaminu said: “My name is Sharafa Biliaminu. I met Fatimoh through one of my sisters.

“She actually lured me into an affair after accompanying one of my acquaintances to a party I organised in Mushin, Lagos. I slept with her several times and she became pregnant.

“She told me that her father died and I gave her some money to visit Ibadan where he claimed her father was living.

“I did not accompany her on the trip because she had yet to formally introduce me to her family as her husband.

“I collected her mother’s phone number, but when I called the woman to commiserate with her, she vehemently denied that her husband (Fatimoh’s father) was dead, so I became confused.

“Although she told me that she was delivered of my child, I was upset when she said that her family members had named the baby Damola.

“She brought the baby to my house at Alagbado (Lagos), dumped her at my door, and bolted. But my mother, Mama Mushin, who is now late, took the baby from me and nursed her till she (mother) died.

“After my mother’s death, I encountered Fatimoh again while I was returning home with my boss. I even slept with her on that day.

“She asked after her daughter and requested to take the girl to live with her. I agreed.

“After some time, the girl came to my house one day and told me that her mother took her to the home of one of my brothers. I was startled.

“I later discovered that Fatimoh actually took Damola to another man, and I trailed her to the man’s (Benson’s) residence.

“I later discovered that Fatimoh took my daughter to Benson and also told him that Damola was his daughter. It was on that basis that I informed the leader of my faction of OPC and we arrested her.”

Giving his own account of the paternity saga, Benson said that Fatimoh was adept at leaving his house for her mother’s residence at Ibadan whenever she was pregnant and she would call to inform him that she had been delivered of a baby.

Benson recalled that he ignited the affair with Fatimoh about 20 years ago when he was fond of revelling at a beer joint in the Agege part of Lagos State.

Benson said: “I am an operative of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the Agege area of Lagos State. I work at one of the parks there.

“Usually, after the day’s work, there is a beer joint in town where we usually relax, and that was where I met Fatimoh who was then one of the attendants.

“One of my friends was actually dating her friend and I also started dating her around 2002/2003. She would sleep in my hotel room and return to where she was living because I had not got my personal accommodation then.

“She later told me that she was pregnant for me, and I declined responsibility because I knew that she lied a lot, and because she was working at a beer parlour where people like her are exposed to men.

“But she insisted that I was responsible for the pregnancy and I accepted. Shortly after, she vanished for about eight months and returned with a baby boy named Jibola, claiming that the baby was mine.

“I told her that I would accept the baby but I would not take her as my wife. I also promised that I would take charge of the boy’s upkeep.

“She said her brother and mother were the ones that named the baby, and I was giving her money for the baby. By then, I had got my own apartment and she started pleading with my younger sister to talk to me so that I could take her back. It was my sister that took her to my father and my father told me that I should accept her back.

“She moved in with me and we started living together as a couple. She took in again and disappeared when the pregnancy was five months old.

“She said she was visiting her mother, and a few months later, she called me on the phone, saying that she had been delivered of a baby girl and that I should send the name of the baby. I disagreed and told her to bring the baby to Lagos for proper christening.

“She later returned with the baby girl (Damola) and I refused to accept that the baby was mine. But after being persuaded by people, I accepted her and the baby and we lived together for about one and a half years until she left me again and only recently returned with the baby to be engulfed the current controversy.”

Fatimoh, however, explained that neither Sharafa nor Benson is the father of Damola. She explained that the real father of the girl is an Ibadan-based drummer identified simply as Bayo.