JOHN INYANG OKORO, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgement): This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Judicial Division, in Appeal No. CA/L/ 655A/2017 delivered on 29/3/2019.
A summary of the facts which has given birth to this appeal are that the 1st Respondent commenced suit No. FHC/L/CS/1346/2015 against the 2nd, 3rct and 4th Respondents for the recovery of the sum of N1,085,859,446.14 (One billion, Eighty five million, eight hundred and fifty nine thousand, four hundred and forty six naira, fourteen kobo) being debt originally owed to Union Bank Plc but bought over by the 1st Respondent. In their statement of defence, the 2nd - 4th Respondents contended that the said sum was a loan obtained from Union Bank with the approval of Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission for the building of digital (ICT) projects in seven Model Nigerian Universities, namely: University of Abuja, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Unive…