Police Accountability in the Post-ENDSARS Protest

Perceptions of Youths in Southeast, Nigeria

Abstract

Accountability has remained a recurring concept in policing particularly within context of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). It was issues associated with perceived police unaccountability that led to the public outcry and protest organised by the Nigerian youths in October 2020 tagged ‘ENDSARS Protest’, to demand for a more accountable police force and an end to police brutality against Nigerian citizens. Years after the protest, nothing seems to be known about the changes or progress in the level of police accountability particularly in Southeast Nigeria. This study therefore investigated the perception of youths in Southeast Nigeria, regarding police accountability in the post ENDSARS protest. The study adopted the descriptive cross-sectional survey design. The sample size for the study was 400 respondents who age between 17 years to 41 years, who voluntarily participated in the study. Data for the study were collected through web-based questionnaire administration and data collected were processed using the SPSS software package. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and data analysed were presented using table and charts. The study hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance using the multinominal logistic regression model in order to determine the influence covariates including gender, educational level and place of residence on respondents’ perception of police accountability in the post ENDSARS protest. Findings of the study revealed that the respondents perceived a less effort on the part of the police force to address the accountability issues within the NPF which triggered the ENDSARS protest in 2020. Result of the hypothesis test suggests that the three predictor variables included in the multinominal logistic model were not statistically significant. The study therefore recommended that communities and stakeholders in should mount more pressure on the federal government to establish independent agency to monitor the activities of the police officers deployed in the various parts of the country, particularly in Southeast zone of Nigeria.