Facts:

The appellant granted a term loan facility to the respondent for the purpose of financing the purchase of blue chip shares in various companies. The respondent acting on the premise that it was no longer indebted to the appellant on the term loan facility filed an action against the appellant claiming inter alia,

“a declaration that the appellant had surreptitiously and fraudulently sold 26,300,000 units of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank PIc) shares belonging to the respondent without crediting the sum realized from the sales into the respondent’s Access Bank Plc current account number 0100003720 as part repayment of the N2 Billion term loan granted to respondent by the appellant;

a declaration that the appellant should have credited the respondent’s Access Bank current account number 0100003720 with the proceeds that the appellant realized from the surreptitious and fraudulent sale of units of International Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc) shares belonging to the respondent plus interest on the said sum.”

The appellant entered a conditional appearance and filed a statement of defence as well as a preliminary objection. The preliminary objection was hinged on want of jurisdiction on the part of the trial court.

In a considered ruling, the trial Court upheld its jurisdiction to entertain the action and dismissed the preliminary objection.

Dissatisfied with the decision of the trial Court, the appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal.