Ajulo reiterated his earlier call for President Bola Tinubu to establish a presidential task force aimed at uncovering officials within the EFCC involved in corrupt practices.
While addressing staff members in his New Year speech, the head of the anti-graft agency, Ola Olukoyede, raised alarm about the prevalence of gratification and bribery among the commission's investigators.
In an interview on Arise TV, the lawyer found it surprising that the EFCC boss acknowledged the issue of investigators taking bribes without taking decisive action to remove such personnel.
Ajulo argued that, given the EFCC's failure to rectify the situation internally, it is imperative for the President to intervene by establishing a task force to conduct integrity tests on the agency.
Ajulo said, “You are saying your operators are demanding bribe and you’ve seen some people, the next thing is to go after them, reveal them, and get them off the hook.
“But maybe he (Olukoyede) is powerless. Maybe the EFCC cannot cleanse itself. If the EFCC cannot cleanse itself, the right thing to do is that we have to agree that the EFCC is a critical institution in this country and we can’t allow it to falter. And maybe the president should set up a presidential task force to ensure that the right thing is done.
“There is a need to clean and weed out the corrupt tendencies, power and principalities that have made EFCC not to fly. The essence of the task force is not something that will be permanent. Its essence is more like an auditing and integrity test to check who are those people (corrupt officials) and bring back EFCC to its real mandate.
“The early times are when the EFCC worked as it should. Gradually, it is so clear that the EFCC has already abdicated its responsibility and the very essence which it was created seems to have been lost particularly by the operators of the EFCC.
