Media personality Chude Jideonwo has responded to reports that a Bayelsa State court awarded N500 million in damages to former petroleum minister Diezani Madueke in a defamation suit against him.

In a post on Tuesday, Jideonwo shared a screenshot of a media report with the headline, “Bayelsa court awards Diezani N500m in defamation suit against Chude Jideonwo,” stating that he and his team were not informed of any legal proceedings, nor were they served notice of trial before the alleged judgment surfaced.

“Upon releasing our docu-series, Is It Your Money? on Friday, we have been made aware of news reports stating that former minister of petroleum and subject of the series, Diezani Alison-Madueke has ‘secured a judgement’ against us in her home state, Bayelsa,” Jideonwo wrote.

“Parties in this case were not served notice of any trial, even though they are public figures and entities with publicly available contact information,” he added.

“We have also not been informed about the judgement outside of yet-unverified news reports.”

The documentary in question, which examines the corruption allegations against Madueke, premiered on Friday.

Jideonwo said legal precautions were thoroughly taken before its release.

“Our lawyers Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie as well as Abraham, Thompsons & Co (who both scrupulously reviewed every element of the film, have already gamed out every potential legal scenario based on how political actors have tried to intimidate independent media in our nation’s modern history,” he said.

He confirmed that legal counsel has now been instructed to verify the reported court judgment and advise on next steps.

“If it is indeed true that there is a judgement, we will meet Ms. Alison-Madueke in court,” Jideonwo stated.