Facts:

In 2008, the claimant entered into a hire purchase agreement with the defendant wherein it supplied to the defendant 24 (twenty four) vehicles for its car rental business. The total cost of the vehicles amounted to N118,050,000.00 (One Hundred Eighteen Million, Fifty Thousand Naira). It was agreed that the contract sum will be paid in six months after the execution of the contract. Alleging default, the claimant filed a suit against the defendant at the High Court of Lagos State, Lagos Division for the recovery of the debt and the accrued interest. The claimant alleged that the defendant has failed, refused or neglected to pay back the debt after repeated demands were made to it by the claimant’s solicitors to no avail.
The defendant responded to the suit by filing its statement of defence and counterclaim. The defendant alleged that after its failure to repay the debt, the claimant agreed to give to it 36 (thirty six) months to repay the debt and that in violation of this agreement, the claimant had withdrawn the vehicles making it impossible to pay back the debt, and in the circumstance, frustrated the contract which resulted in financial loss to the defendant. The defendant alleged that the vehicles were repossessed by the claimant and that it wrote, through its solicitors, to the claimant to return the vehicles to no avail. The defendant sought a declaration of the court declaring the act of repossession by the claimant as illegal and unlawful and a violation of the partnership agreement between the parties. The defendant also sought an order to direct the claimant to pay to it the sum of N75,600,000.00 (Seven–Five Million, Six Hundred Thousand Naira) as special damages for its wrongful conduct and another N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) as general damages. The defendant however abandoned its counterclaim and the matter went to trial.