Abstract

Little attention has been paid to the area of effective policing and electoral violence in Nigeria despite the prevalence of electoral violence in Nigerian polity. This therefore, necessitates the current study. The study adopted the structural–functionalism theory as its theoretical framework. Three hundred and sixty copies of structured questionnaires were administered to purposively sampled respondents. Data collected were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that 65.9% of respondents agree that besides the constitutional mandate of providing security especially during elections, police officers were also used to disburse bribes during elections. The study also shows that insufficient training and poor pre-election operational preparation greatly diminishes the police capacity to curb electoral violence. The tested hypotheses revealed that there is a significant positive correlation between electoral violence and the use of police to suppress cases of electoral fraud (r = 0.240, p <.05). Thus, the more the use of police to suppress cases of electoral fraud, the higher the tendency for electoral violence. Furthermore, inadequate logistics and police funding are accepted as significant predictors of performance of police during elections (F (1, 286) = 9.979, p < .05.). The study concludes that all stakeholders in elections have a clear understanding of the statutory functions of the police in the electoral process and thus, there is a shared expectation that the police as an institution of the state should take responsibility for guaranteeing safety, security, law, and order to ensure crime free and violence–free elections. The study recommends among others that the policy of withdrawing police attachés to politicians and aspirants at the polling centres be sustained and adequate training of police officers for electoral duties should be institutionalized.