fix: add nil checks to prevent unit tests from failing

[rkpattnaik780]

The PR adds extra nil check to fix errors reported by the unit tests.

This has been tested using make test locally.

• The commits are squashed in a cohesive manner and have meaningful messages.
• Testing instructions have been added in the PR body (for PRs involving changes that are not immediately obvious).
• The developer has manually tested the changes and verified that the changes work

[atheo89]

/lgtm

[harshad16]

/lgtm
/approve

thanks 💯

[openshift-ci]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: harshad16

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[harshad16]

/cherrypick stable

[openshift-cherrypick-robot]

@harshad16: new pull request created: #318

In response to this:

/cherrypick stable

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