Facts:

Through a banker/customer relationship between the Appellant and the 1st Respondent, the latter operates Account No. 1012465427 with the former. On the 17th day of January 2011, the Appellant had approved the issuance of Advance Payment Guarantees on behalf of the 1st Respondent to facilitate its contract for the supply of 700,000 units of Advanced English Dictionary and Senior Illustrated Dictionary in two tranches at a 0.5 percent fee. The 1st Respondent accepted the offer, and the 2nd Respondent advanced the sums of ₦718,760,455.28 and ₦154,020,097.56 (totaling ₦872,780,552.84) being 70% and 15% of the total contract sums into the 1st Respondent’s Account with the Appellant in pursuance of the Advance Payment Guarantee agreement. According to the 1st Respondent, the Appellant issued Letters of Credit to the Manufacturers of the Dictionary and also took delivery by clearing them at the port and supervising the delivery of the goods to the 2nd Respondent. The remaining seven containers were deposited in a warehouse chosen by officials of the 2nd Respondent. However, the 1st Respondent was not allowed by the Appellant to touch the said amount of ₦872,780,552.84 between January and May 2021. Furthermore, the 1st Respondent’s instruction to the Appellant on 07/10/2011 to transfer various sums to some beneficiaries were not honoured by the Appellant despite the fact that there was a credit of over ₦900M (Nine Hundred Million Naira) in his said Account at the time. The case of the 1st Respondent is that the Appellant has no justification in denying it the use of the funds in its Account. On the other hand, the Appellant contended at the High Court of Gombe State (lower Court) that in view of the two Advance Payment Guarantees it issued on behalf of the 1st Respondent, part of the condition was for it to place a lien on the total sum of ₦872,780,552.84 paid by the 2nd Respondent into the 1st Respondent’s Account as cash collateral until the 1st Respondent is discharged of liability or any obligation by the 2nd Respondent. The Appellant further counterclaimed against the 1st Respondent. Upon conclusion of trial at the lower Court, the lower Court gave judgment in favour of the 1st Respondent. Aggrieved by the decision of the lower Court, the Appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal.