The role of external audit is crucial in today's corporate world. This is due to the separation of ownership from management as a result of numerous shareholders in companies. The credibility of auditors is being questioned in many countries, and is evidenced by criticisms and litigations against auditors. One major criticism by users of financial statements was that the auditors were unable to detect and report frauds. Even though auditors insist that their roles are not primarily fraud detection, somehow users of financial information expect the auditors verification function over the financial reports to assure society that management's prepared financial statements is free of fraud and is of a high quality. This misunderstanding between the auditors' perception of financial reporting and what the public expects such perception to be has been a recurring issue in the auditing literature and has often been referred to as the audit expectation gap. The study examines the issues associated with audit expectations gap and identifies the role of (i) Society's failure to understand the auditor's duties (ii) Auditor adherence to Auditing standard, (iii) differences in the public's and (iv) auditor's perception regarding the duties of the auditors as possible factors influencing audit expectations gap. The recommendation is for the regulatory bodies of the accounting and auditing practice in Nigeria to set up appropriate regulatory frameworks and guidelines to reduce expectations gap