Facts:

The plaintiff was awarded a contract by the defendant for the construction of the distribution sub-station projects at Calabar and Odukpani service centers of Calabar district and a letter was written by the plaintiff as acceptance of the offer and in furtherance of the contract he executed a performance bond in favour of the defendant.

Thereafter the plaintiff requested for mobilization fee in writing of 50% down payment, but the defendant did not act. He nevertheless, commenced work in performance of the contract and did other jobs after collecting some materials from the store of the defendant as dictated in the award letter. He however could not continue with work because of non-availability of materials and, because the defendant requested him to suspend work until the store was supplied with materials from Abuja, which he did