Facts:

The respondent is a customer of the appellant bank and in March 1998, the respondent took a term loan and an overdraft facility from the appellant. For the term loan, there was one month moratorium and thereafter the respondent was to liquidate the loan in 35 months at a monthly installment of N100,000.00 (one hundred thousand naira) which was to expire in April 2001 while the overdraft facility was tenured for six months to expire September 1998. The respondent’s real properties situate at 147 Akarigbo Street, Sabo, Sagamu were used as collateral to secure repayment and the said properties were insured against fire and burglary.

Subsequently, the respondent was in default of both the overdraft and term loan and on 15th June, 1999, the appellant wrote a final demand request for the payment of the sum of N4,847,693.63k (four million, eight hundred and forty-seven thousand,