Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Nigerian couple give birth to caucasian baby

 




British Nmachi Ihegboro has amazed genetics experts who say the little girl is not an albino.


Dad Ben, 44, a customer services adviser, admitted: "We both just sat there after the birth staring at her."


Mum Angela, 35, of Woolwich, South London, beamed as she said: "She's beautiful - a miracle baby."


Ben told yesterday how he was so shocked when Nmachi was born, he even joked: "Is she MINE?"


But as the baby's older brother and sister - both black - crowded round the "little miracle" at their home in South London, Ben declared: "Of course she's mine."


Blue-eyed blonde Nmachi, whose name means "Beauty of God" in the Nigerian couple's homeland, has baffled genetics experts because neither Ben nor wife Angela have ANY mixed-race family history.


Pale genes skipping generations before cropping up again could have explained the baby's appearance.


Ben also stressed: "My wife is true to me. Even if she hadn't been, the baby still wouldn't look like that.


"We both just sat there after the birth staring at her for ages - not saying anything."


Doctors at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup - where Angela, from nearby Woolwich, gave birth - have told the parents Nmachi is definitely no albino.


Ben, who came to Britain with his wife five years ago and works for South Eastern Trains, said: "She doesn't look like an albino child anyway - not like the ones I've seen back in Nigeria or in books. She just looks like a healthy white baby."


He went on: "My mum is a black Nigerian although she has a bit fairer skin than mine.


"But we don't know of any white ancestry. We wondered if it was a genetic twist.


"But even then, what is with the long curly blonde hair?"


Professor Bryan Sykes, head of Human Genetics at Oxford University and Britain's leading expert, yesterday called the birth "extraordinary".


He said: "In mixed race humans, the lighter variant of skin tone may come out in a child - and this can sometimes be startlingly different to the skin of the parents.


"This might be the case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, as in Afro-Caribbean populations. But in Nigeria there is little mixing."


Prof Sykes said BOTH parents would have needed "some form of white ancestry" for a pale version of their genes to be passed on.


But he added: "The hair is extremely unusual. Even many blonde children don't have blonde hair like this at birth."


The expert said some unknown mutation was the most likely explanation.


He admitted: "The rules of genetics are complex and we still don't understand what happens in many cases."


The amazing birth comes five years after Kylie Hodgson became mum to twin daughters - one white and the other black - in Nottingham.


Kylie, now 23, and her partner Remi Horder, now 21, are both mixed race.


Even so the odds were estimated at a million to one.


The Sun told in 2002 how a white couple had Asian twins after a sperm mix-up by a fertility clinic.


Yesterday three-day-old Nmachi's churchgoing mum Angela admitted that she was "speechless" at first seeing her baby girl, who was delivered in a caesarean op.


She said: "I thought, 'What is this little doll?'


"She's beautiful and I love her. Her colour doesn't matter. She's a miracle baby.


"But still, what on earth happened here?"


Her husband told how their son Chisom, four, was even more confused than them by his new sister.


Ben said: "Our other daughter Dumebi is only two so she's too young to understand.


"But our boy keeps coming to look at his sister and then sits down looking puzzled.


"We're a black family. Suddenly he has a white sister."


Ben continued: "Of course, we are baffled too and want to know what's happened. But we understand life is very strange.


"All that matters is that she's healthy and that we love her.She's a proud British Nigerian."


Queen Mary's Hospital said: "Congratulations to Angela and her family on the birth of their daughter."


The Sun



 


South Africa deports 47 citizens

The friendship that existed between Nigeria and South Africa seems to have been thawed as the country which has remained a major trading partner and regional ally deported 47 Nigerians yesterday.


According to Nigeria Immigration Service sources, the deportees made up of 46 males and one female were disembarked at the cargo terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from a chartered flight from Johannesburg.


After waiting for sometime, the deportees were allowed to leave the airport to their homes or other destinations within Nigeria. Some of the deportees who spoke with newsmen said the South African Authority has become antagonistic to Africans residing in that country and became very hostile with a regime of clampdowns and harassment.


The South Africa Authority they said was more hostile to African immigrants from Nigeria. The deportees noted that this attitude took a more aggressive tone immediately after the World Cup tournament, which was the first to be hosted by any African country.


"South Africans have always been hostile to Africans that live in their country while they fear the white people. It is worse with us Nigerians who they believe take their jobs away, so they have been harassing us for many years now and after the World Cup they started harassing us again and now they have deported us. I left everything I have laboured for years there," one of the deportees who refused to give his name said.


The deportee also said that they were treated like common criminals.


Two weeks ago there was report that a young Nigerian lady that lived and was studying in South Africa and returned to Nigeria to attend a wedding.


As she landed in Johannesburg she was stopped by Immigration at the airport and put on the next plane back to Nigeria.


The lady cried through the six hours flight to Lagos because she was a medical student in one of the universities in South Africa and she was to start her exams in the next two days before she was forced back to Nigeria.


This Day


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Swiss explain asylum seeker death to Nigeria

The Federal Migration Office head has returned from a trip to Nigeria where he explained to officials how a Nigeria died while being deported.


Alard du Bois-Reymond expressed regret to the Nigerian foreign minister over the death and relayed details of an autopsy that found the 29-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker had died of a heart attack while at Zurich airport last year.


The victim was suffering from a serious heart condition that had not been diagnosed. The heart attack was probably brought on by the fact that the man had been on hunger strike and was in a stressed state at the time.

The Nigerian, a convicted drug dealer, had refused to leave the country and had been forcibly restrained while boarding a deportation flight.

Du Bois-Reymond said the meeting, which also included Swiss foreign ministry representatives, had given closure to the affair and re-established “mutual trust” between the two countries.

He also proposed that Nigerian representatives be present on special deportation flights from Switzerland to defuse tensions that may arise. Deportation flights were halted following the death but have since resumed to all countries besides Nigeria. These too are expected to start again this month.

The trip was also a chance for the Swiss to discuss closer cooperation with Nigeria in dealing with the problem of migration. A Nigerian delegation is due to visit Switzerland in October to continue discussions on the issue. 


Swiss Info


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