The presidency on Friday challenged Borno senator, Muhammed Ndume, to provide proof for his claims that President Muhammadu Buhari is surrounded by “kleptocrats,” or shut his mouth for good.

Mr Ndume had on Wednesday at a press conference in Maiduguri called on President Buhari to disband the federal government palliative committee on COVID-19 headed by the minister of humanitarian affairs, Sadiya Farouq.

Mr Ndume said the committee “lacks credibility” to manage the huge resources at its disposal. He said so far, the distribution of the relief materials has been laced with “fraud.”

The senator who also alleged lopsided distribution of the palliative funds, said “some people are rushing to either share or steal this money.”

Mr Ndume a former majority leader of the Senate who also unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of the current session of the Senate, said he has proof of a fraudulent disposition of the palliative committee.

“I have reliable information that even names they have generated are fake, the BVN is not fraud-proof, one person will generate thousands of names and after conniving with banks, they are issued BVN. Investigation will reveal all these, ” he said.

“They have the names of their cooks, drivers, relatives, relatives of their house helps and those they call the poorest of the poor and give this money to them.”

In a terse rebuttal issued by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the presidency challenged Mr Ndume to prove his claims or “keep quiet.”

Describing the former senate majority leader as a “discontented” person, Mr Shehu faulted his claims, saying he did not back them with facts.

Mr Shehu said when he was first elected president in 2015, “President Muhammadu Buhari said that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody.”

“What was true then remains true today, ” he added.

He said Mr Buhari believes in public service, “as a servant of the people – and he expects the exact same commitment from members of his government and, of course, his closest aides.”

“The President has made it clear times without number that anyone who will not, cannot, or does not pull his weight – nor meet these exacting standards – is not welcome in his administration. A number of ranking officials have been shown the way out at various times simply on account of this.

“Similarly, he believes in loyalty and truthfulness. Should any individuals be found to be serving themselves and not the people, then it is right and proper to call them out. But this must be done on the basis of evidence and proof – not on conjecture.

“It is therefore disappointing to hear a politician call out unnamed individuals in the administration and accuse them of unnamed transgressions.

“If this politician has evidence – then he should make public their identities as well as his proof. Innuendo is not proof.

Mr Shehu also tackled Mr Ndume on his call to disband the COVID-19 palliative measures committee because it is for not functioning as it should.

“No one replaces an institutional government body in the midst of the global pandemic without clear and irrefutable evidence that it needs replacing.

He said Mr Ndume was attacking the Buhari administration with allegations he could not prove because he is disgruntled.

“A press briefing from a discontented politician is rarely the source of such evidence.

“At this difficult time of the battle by Nigeria against Coronavirus, everyone should help the fight and not seek to make political capital out of it, whatever his or her grievances,” he said.