Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there were celebrated cases of corporate frauds and financial misappropriation in corporate giants. The series of frauds have left a sense of doubt about the "unbiasedness" of external auditors to render an attest function on the credibility of published financial statements. In this light, this research sought to empirically investigate into the perception of auditor independence in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on the opinions of randomly selected lecturers of auditing, practising auditors, stockbrokers, shareholders and managers. Primary data was extensively relied upon. In addition to the primary data, secondary data from annual reports were also used. The data collected were used to answer research questions and test hypotheses. Test of hypotheses was performed using Pearson Correlation and Kendall's measure of concordance at a 0.05 level of significance. The outcome of the tests showed that the selected respondents perceived size of audit fee as the most influencing factor, capable of deterring auditor independence in Nigeria. It was also observed that existing laws were obsolete and need to be updated to make them relevant.Keywords: statutory auditor, independence, stakeholder * Corresponding author: sbaadeyemi@yahoo.co.uk S e r b i a n J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t Serbian Journal of Management 6 (2) (2011) 247 -267www.sjm06.com DOI: 10.5937/sjm1102247A held accountable. Beattie and Fearnley (2002) pointed out that financial audit remains an integral part of corporate governance.Despite the prominence ascribed to external audit function, the sovereignty of the external auditor is an issue currently attracting scholarly scrunity. Mautz and Sharaf (1961) in Arnold et al.(1999) noted that, auditors must be constantly aware of factors that affect the audit environment which can influence or harm their independence in other to ensure confidence of investors. Supporting this statement, Xu and Wang (2008) reiterated that independence has long been recognized as the most important defining characteristic of the public accounting profession.However, the spate of corporate failure in developed and developing economies all over the world, have stirred the quest to ascertain if the failures are associated with the independence required of statutory auditors. Byrne (2001), as well as Ayvaz and Pehlivanli (2010) expressed that objectivity or "independence of mind" is essential for the exercise of professional judgement, which has continued to be an important topic. In the same vein, Callaghan et al. (2009) identified auditor independence as a necessary condition for effective auditing. In the light of these statements, this research sought to empirically examine the independence of statutory auditors in Nigeria, with emphasis on same selected audit firms. Statement of the ProblemAdelaja (2009) expressed that credible financial information is vital to the growth of any economy; also auditors are expected to be independent and objective in ...