BACKGROUND: Urethral catheterization is commonly performed prior to Caesarean section for continuous bladder drainage. This practice has been considered as a main cause of urinary tract infection, especially if left for so long. The timing of removal is still controversial, as varying time of removal has been reported in the literature. In our institutions, a 24-hour removal is still being practiced based on empirical evidence. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to compare the effect of spontaneous voiding versus immediate, 6-hour and 24-hour post-operative removal of urethral catheter following elective caesarean section. METHODOLOGY: This study was a prospective cross-sectional study of 160 booked parturients who had elective caesarean section for varying indications at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between January 1st and December 31st, 2014. All participants who met the inclusion criteria were selected by simple random sampling into the study groups and control. Controls were patients who voided spontaneously prior to surgery. The study population had urethral catheterization under sterile conditions on the operating table. The participants were randomized into four groups depending on when their urethral catheters were removed postoperatively. All patients had mid-stream sample of urine collected a week prior to admission. Patients with pre-operative positive urine culture were excluded from the study. Postoperatively, mid-stream sample of urine were also collected from the study population 72 hours after surgery and sent for microscopy, culture and sensitivity. Spinal anaesthesia 1 was used for all the participants in this study. The demographic characteristics of the patients were recorded and the patients matched for age and parity. The data from this study was analyzed using SPSS version-19 software. Test of significance using the students' test and X2 -test with the level of significance set at 0.05 was carried out.