The senior special assistant to President Bola Tinubu, Temitope Ajayi, has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s call for the release of detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, as “desperate” and “disgraceful,” accusing the opposition figure of exploiting a sensitive legal matter for political gain.

He made the remarks on Thursday in a post on his social media handle, shortly after Mr Atiku announced his intention to join activist Omoyele Sowore’s planned #FreeNnamdiKanu protest at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on October 20.

“The political desperation that will make a former Vice President and a supposed statesman advance this kind of disgraceful agenda is mind-numbing,” Mr Ajayi wrote.

Mr Ajayi said it was “mind-numbing” that a former vice president and presidential aspirant would publicly align with what he described as a “disgraceful agenda” that undermines the rule of law.

Mr Atiku had earlier stated that Mr Kanu’s prolonged detention despite multiple court orders granting him bail represented “an open sore on the nation’s conscience and a stain on our belief in the rule of law.”

He said, “Defying court orders that granted him bail is an abuse of power and an assault on justice. I lend my voice in full support of the campaign led by @YeleSowore for his immediate release or due prosecution.”

But responding on behalf of the presidency, Mr Ajayi insisted that the blame for the prolonged legal process lay squarely with Mr Kanu and his lawyers, not the government.

“If Nnamdi Kanu has stayed long in detention and his case has dragged on, it is because he made it so himself, not because the legal system is against him,” Mr Ajayi said.

“Kanu and his lawyers have used every trick and legal gymnastics to frustrate his trial. The prosecution has closed its case against him. It is time for him to open his defence.”

He further noted that a court had already dismissed a “no-case submission” entered by Mr Kanu’s legal team, ruling that the IPOB leader must face trial.

“No politically motivated protest will stop that after the court has ruled that he must open his defence,” he added.

Mr Ajayi also accused Mr Kanu and his followers of wreaking havoc across the South-East over the years through violence and secessionist propaganda.

“Kanu and his foot soldiers have killed, ruined lives and destroyed tens of thousands of livelihoods in the South-East in the last 10 years. Communities in parts of the region now lie desolate on account of his hate campaigns,” he said.

He criticised Mr Atiku’s support for Mr Kanu’s release as a dangerous political ploy unworthy of a former vice president.

“It is unconscionable that a former Vice President of Nigeria wants an anarchist to get a free pass and not be held accountable under the law of a country he still seeks to govern just for his own selfish political ambition,” Mr Ajayi said.

“There is a minimum standard a former Vice President should never fall below.”

Mr Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was first arrested in 2015 on charges of treasonable felony and terrorism. After fleeing Nigeria in 2017, he was rearrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria in 2021 under controversial circumstances.

Despite repeated court rulings ordering his release on bail, he has remained in custody, with the federal government maintaining that his trial must continue.

Mr Sowore’s planned October 20 march to the Presidential Villa — which has drawn support from figures such as Mr Atiku and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe — is expected to be one of the largest demonstrations yet demanding Mr Kanu’s freedom.