Public Perceptions of Nigeria Police Monetary Bribery in Awka, Nigeria

AbstractThe Nigerian police are often perceived by the Nigerian public as a very corrupt institution due to reports in the media and direct experiences of police brutality, extortion, injustice, and especially monetary bribery. The refusal to pay monetary bribes to the police has led to loss of lives and a lack of trust in the police. The purpose of this study was to investigate public perceptions of police monetary bribery in Awka in Anambra State, Nigeria. The conceptual framework was Novak et al.’s dynamic social impact theory. The research questions focused on understanding how the public perceived police monetary bribery and how these perceptions influenced their attitude and involvement in police accountability mechanisms and democratic principles. The inquiry was made using a qualitative case study design. The purposive sampling technique was used to select a total of 66 Awka residents as study participants. An interview protocol was used to elicit exhaustive responses from the participants, which were processed using QDA Miner and analyzed according to qualitative content analysis. Findings show that participants saw police monetary bribery as ubiquitous, customary, beggarly, and extorting; systemic; indiscriminating of criminals and non-criminals; and to receipt to police services. This study\u27s recommendations emphasize the need to raise the Nigerian government and the people’s (a) awareness of how police bribery continues to degrade national and global perceptions of the country and (b) embrace of democratic principles. Hence, a total overhaul of the police institution\u27s ethical foundation may alleviate the monetary bribery culture and all forms of corruption by the Nigeria Police leading to positive social change