In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Nigeria police was entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating local shutdowns, encouraging social distancing, enforcing stay-at-home mandates, and supervising compulsory wearing of face masks. Drawing from procedural justice theory, this study explored accounts of unlawful use of force, human rights violations, and other police misconducts that resulted from the enforcement of COVID-19 measures. Using a victim-centred approach involving qualitative, in-depth interviews with 71 people, who perceived their encounters with the police enforcing COVID-19 measures as bordering on their rights, were conducted, and a thematic analysis of the narratives carried out. Participants reported significant variety of police aggression directed towards them: including actual threats of physical violence, hostility, intimidation, extortion, and punishment. Female participants reported incidents of sexual harassment, unwanted sexual advances, and assault. The study concludes that the militarized option adopted by the police to enforce COVID-19 measures drew deeper divides between the police and communities than previously existed. This stresses the need for Nigeria police to train officers, reprimand erring officers, and deploy procedural justice principles in enforcing COVID-19 measures.

为应对全球 COVID-19 大流行，尼日利亚警方负责协调当地停工、鼓励社会疏远、强制居家令以及监督强制佩戴口罩。本研究借鉴程序正义理论，探讨了因执行 COVID-19 措施而导致的非法使用武力、侵犯人权和其他警察不当行为的情况。使用以受害者为中心的方法，对 71 人进行了定性、深入的访谈，他们认为他们与执行 COVID-19 措施的警察的遭遇侵犯了他们的权利，并对叙述进行了专题分析。参与者报告了针对他们的多种警察攻击：包括实际的身体暴力威胁、敌意、恐吓、勒索和惩罚。女性参与者报告了性骚扰、不受欢迎的性挑逗和攻击事件。该研究得出的结论是，警察为执行 COVID-19 措施而采取的军事化选择在警察和社区之间造成了比以前更深的分歧。这强调了尼日利亚警方在执行 COVID-19 措施时需要培训警官、训斥犯错的警官并部署程序正义原则。