IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION AND RITUAL FRAMING IN NIGERIAN POLICE PRESS RELEASES

Abstract

Previous studies have examined cybercrime in Nigeria through socio-economic, criminological, and media lenses, often focusing on perpetrator narratives and the symbolic strategies used in digital scams. This study examined how identity is constructed and ritual crime is framed in Nigerian police press releases on cybercrime, with a focus on cases that involved ritual killings and symbolic violence. The study adopted a qualitative, interpretive design, and analysed fifteen purposively selected press releases that were issued between 2021 and 2025. The data was sourced from the Nigerian police website and other reputable media outlets such as the Punch Newspaper, Vanguard, Guardian and the Nation's Newspaper.  The analysis was guided by Fairclough's three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis and Goffman's dramaturgical theory, which enabled a multi-layered interpretation of how language performs both representational and ideological functions. The findings revealed that suspects were discursively positioned through the inversion of social and moral expectations, while ritual themes were used to dramatise deviance and amplify public fear. These narratives also positioned the police as moral arbiters, using language to perform legitimacy, control, and moral restoration. The study concludes that police press releases function not simply as crime reports but as symbolic performances that construct deviant identities, shape public perception, and reinforce the moral authority of the Nigerian state.