Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of an online news medium, Pointblanknews.com, Jackson Ude, has dismissed claims that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, won him in the defamation suit in the United States court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Ude said the claim that Sylva emerged victorious in the out-of-court agreement was false, criminal and malicious.
Prior to Ude’s claim, an electronic copy of a settlement agreement entered by Sylva and himself to discontinue the case filed in the court presided over by Joseph F. Leeson Jr. claimed that Ude agreed to take down, delete and destroy all articles and publications alleging any criminal or other misconduct by Sylva appearing on Pointblank News website and its social media accounts.
However, Ude in a statement on Monday via electronic mail, argued that the claims of victory by Sylva was spurious, criminal, malicious, defamatory and disparaging,
The statement reads in part: “My attention has been drawn to the news report being sponsored by the Minister of State, Petroleum, Timipre Sylvia, in which he claimed victory in a United States Eastern District Court, Pennsylvania.
“Nothing can be more ridiculous than such a claim when indeed the Minister was the one who instituted a defamatory case against me, turned around twice to request for an out-of-court settlement through his attorney, used leaders in Nigeria to reach out to me to accept an out of court settlement.
“In 2021, Sylva came to the U.S court and filed a lawsuit against me for defamation. The case started in February 2022. After discoveries were conducted by attorneys for both Sylva and me.
“Sylva appeared for deposition via zoom and was interrogated for close to five hours in May. I was also deposed for about three hours. After the deposition, Sylva through his lawyers approached my lawyers for an out-of-court settlement.
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