Facts:

The appellant is a company registered in Nigeria to carry on banking business while the respondent is a businessman and customer of the appellant. In 1982 the respondent purchased seven bills totaling US $121,038 at the Onitsha New Market Branch of the appellant on the agreement that the appellant should immediately transfer the said sum to its suppliers overseas being payment for goods purchased from the overseas suppliers. After payment of diverse charges, the defendant agreed to remit the money to the customers whose particulars were known to the defendant through correspondent bank.

For reasons not known to the respondent, the appellant failed to remit or transfer the sum as agreed. As a result, the respondent had to arrange to pay the said sum to the overseas suppliers in 1983 when the overseas’ supplier came to Nigeria to demand for the payment for the goods supplied. The respondent thereafter requested to know the whereabouts of or what happened to the bills purchased by him from the appellant since 1982, but was only requested by the appellant to exercise patience. The respondent waited patiently until 1995 when his patience was exhausted and joined the appellant in the search for the said sum. In the course of his investigations, the respondent discovered that the appellant was keeping the sum in its account with the Central Bank of Nigeria and making use of it in the course of its business. As a result, the respondent demanded from the appellants the refund of his money either in US dollars or its equivalent in Naira at that time. The appellants failed to do so and the respondent filed this action on the 19th of June 1996.