Contribution of Operation Skolombo in Curbing Street Crimes and Improving Urban Security in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Skolombo simply means street children in Nigeria. While Operation Skolombo, refers to government policy effort in tackling the menace of street children in the state through the formation of the task force codenamed as aforementioned. The study employed general systems theory as its theoretical framework. The theory emphasizes the importance of the various segments of the society that act upon the system and in which Operation Skolombo as one of the government policy measures seek to address. This study adopted ex-post fact and descriptive survey designs. Ex-post fact is a type of design suitable for an investigation for which the phenomena being investigated has already occurred. In corollary, descriptive survey research design was employed towards determining the status of a great phenomenon rather than towards the isolation of causative factor. The statistical tool used in this study was the Simple Linear Regression Analysis with the aid of SPSS version 27. Information was gathered and findings were discussed using primary data which were majorly collated with the aid of questionnaire. The study found that the Operation Skolombo has significantly improved urban security and reduced street crimes in Cross River State, Nigeria. Among other things, it was recommended that the government of Cross River State should ensure significant efforts in implementing policy response especially to rebranding Operation Skolombo in order to improve urban security and reduce street crimes in the state.