Hallidayan Transitivity in Representation of Nigeria Police-protesters in IGP K.A Egbetokun's Speech of August 1, 2024

A number of language studies have been researched on police-suspect interrogations, interactions, face management, and speech actings with data drawn from the conversations of police-suspects. The language researchers pay little or no attention to linguistic analysis of police speeches. This study therefore explores police speech delivered on August 1, 2024 by the IGP of Nigeria Police with a view to narrowing the gap in language studies and literature. The study uses Material Process of Hallidayan Transitivity to identify the representation of police-protesters through deployment of the police speech as data. The research, through descriptive and qualitative data analysis, reveals that police always deploy linguistic strategies to represent in-group nice and misrepresent the out-group otherwise. This study therefore indicates that the police are represented as enforcer of lawfulness, affirmer of constitution, maintainer of law and order, isolator of criminals, provider of protection, adviser on security, deployer of security agents, and addresser while protesters are represented as troopers, looters, murderers, and would-be treasonist.