This article examines the problem of corruption in the judicial system of postcolonial Nigeria using Lagos State Judiciary as a case study. The study is informed by the fact that, despite several decades of justice sector reforms in the country, some judges and court staff are still found culpable of abuse of the oath of their office. The study adopted direct encounters of court users to measure judicial corruption using a total sample of 827 litigants selected across the High and Magistrate Courts in Lagos State. The quantitative method of data collection was adopted. The study found that regularity at the court, type of court case, and category of litigant were significant predictors of vulnerability to judicial extortion, bribery and corruption victimisation in the court. Specifically, the study found that litigants with criminal cases were three times more likely to be asked for bribes and denied justice than those with civil cases. The implication of these findings for justice sector reform in Nigeria is that, the government, National Judicial Council and State Judicial Commission must deliberately block avenues and opportunities for bribery in criminal prosecution so as to protect the rights of the less privileged in the justice system.

本文以拉各斯州司法机构为案例研究了后殖民时期尼日利亚司法系统中的腐败问题。该研究的事实是，尽管该国进行了数十年的司法部门改革，但仍然发现一些法官和法院工作人员被滥用职权宣判。该研究使用拉各斯州高等法院和地方法院选出的827名诉讼人的样本，通过法院用户的直接相遇来衡量司法腐败。采用了定量的数据收集方法。研究发现，法院的规律性，法院案件的类型和诉讼人的类别是法院容易受到司法勒索，贿赂和腐败之害的重要预测指标。特别，研究发现，刑事案件诉讼人被贿赂和拒绝司法的可能性是民事案件的三倍。这些调查结果对尼日利亚司法部门的改革意味着，政府，国家司法委员会和州司法委员会必须故意阻止贿赂犯罪的途径和机会，以保护司法系统中特权较弱的人的权利。